The Magazine for CSR and Sustainability Leaders
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August 2013
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WE HAVE STARTED WITH
“ NUMBER PLATE”
BUT VERY SOON ENTIRE
BODY WILL BE CHANGED...
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www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Vol.1 I Issue -2 I August 2013 I Monthly
Dear Readers,
I am very happy to share with you that we are
receiving overwhelming response for the magazine ‘CSR & Competiveness’ from the leaders
from corporate, civil society, researchers and
students of not only India but also from various
part of the globe.
Thank you all for giving this overwhelming & encouraging response, support and useful suggestions and finally your solidarity towards CSR and
the cause, “CSR & Competitiveness” stands for.
You are well aware that historic Companies Bill
has been passed on August 8, 2013. The Indian
republic has made a dynamic move by introducing the Companies Bill 2012 to present the
new form and structure of the companies act
promulgated way back in 1956. We are committed to keep a tab on the changing dimensions of the business environment and sensitize
our readers of the latest updates to facilitate
them in formulation of strategies to make their
products, services and the organization globally
competitive. The new bill has ushered an era of
optimism among the corporates with a positive
view angle. The regulatory environment in India
has witnessed a paradigm shift thereby leading
to new set of challenges posed to the corporate
world to comply with the latest provisions of the
companies bill 2012 in a time bound manner.
Rusen Kumar
Editor & Director
‘‘
‘CSR and Competitiveness’ has been dynamically proactive to analyze
the latest developments
in the various dimensions
of the business environment so as to sensitize
and facilitate its’ readers
to help them evolve world
class strategies to become
globally competitive.
‘CSR and Competitiveness’ has been dynamically
proactive to analyze the latest developments in
the various dimensions of the business environment so as to sensitize and facilitate its’ readers
to help them evolve world class strategies to
become globally competitive.
It is the best time for the Indian corporate world
to analyze the varied provisions of the recently
passed Companies Bill 2012, in the Lok Sabha to
re-align the strategic roadmap of the organization and the CSR strategies to make their organization globally competitive and sustainable.
The government and the corporates have done
a commendable job by structuring, aligning the
priorities of the government and the various
stakeholders in the form of companies bill 2012.
The most challenging imperative for the companies is to bring about a change in composition
and configuration of the top level management
including the board of directors to ensure scrupulous compliance to the provisions of the Companies Bill 2012 in a time bound manner. The
dynamic team of board of directors is required in
the light of various expectations from the compliance perspective as well as to ensure development of team of highly competent professionals
in a conducive environment committed to the
cause of excellence and innovation on a dynamic basis in the light of exponentially dynamic
dimensions of the business environment.
The secret of success in the modern digital era
would be to create a world class team of professionals at various levels of organizational
hierarchy committed to the cause of learning
and development focusing on innovation and
excellence on a dynamic basis to be proactively
dynamic, committed to deliver quick response
to challenges and opportunities in the globally
dynamic corporate world.
To conclude, the Companies Bill 2012, has led to
the emergence of challenges and opportunities
for the companies looking at change with a proactive view angle. It is the best time to introspect
and evolve the strategic planning process reoriented towards highest degrees of compliance in
the light of the recent changes. The companies
which shall proactively plan and implement the
strategic roadmap to combat the challenges
arising in the new regulatory environment shall
be able to tide over the challenges of the competitive market scenario at the national and
international level. The enhanced level of focus
on strategic planning, implementation and control optimally complimented and supplemented
by an organizational environment driven by the
culture of learning and innovation in all facets
and domain areas shall make the organization,
its products and services globally competitive.
CSR Toon- Renowned Cartoonist Triyambak Sharma, Editor, Cartoon Watch, the only
monthly Cartoon Magazine of India, has agreed
to contribute ‘CSR Toon’ for the magazine. We
welcome him in our editorial board and hope
our readers will enjoy his creativity. Triambak is
featured in Limca Book of Records for publishing
only bilingual cartoon magazine over 15 years.
Enjoy the ‘CSR Toon’ published in cover page.
‘‘
Editorial and Advisory Board
Rusen Kumar
Editor
Dr (Prof.) Rana Singh
Executive Editor
ranasingh@indiacsr.in
Anil Jaggi
Executive Editor
anil@indiacsr.in
Vijay Kapur
Eminent CSR Consultant & Author
Director – Kohana CSR
Layout -
Enakshi Sengupta
Eminent CSR Consultant & Author
Director – Kohana CSR
CSR & Competitiveness
Prof BD Singh
Renowned Academician & Author
Advertisement/Circulation/Subscription enquiries
Dr (Prof) Saurabh Mittal
Sub-Editor, New Delhi
saurabh@indiacsr.in
Dr K K Upadhyay
Head CSR-Ficci Aditya Birla CSR
Centre of Excellence
Harsha Mukherjee
Sub-Editor, Mumbai
harsha@indiacsr.in
Monaem Ben Lellahom
Co-Founder & Head of Sustainability Advisory Services Sustainable
Square Consultancy and Think Tank
UAE
Triambak Sharma
Renowned Cartoonist
Editor-Cartoon
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
Nuage Designs [ www.nuagedesign.in ]
Editorial Office
222, Krishn Vatika, Near Shalini School, Church Road, Boirdadar,
RAIGARH-496001 (Chhattisgarh)
csrcompetitiveness@gmail.com
222, Krishn Vatika, Near Shalini School, Church Road, Boirdadar,
RAIGARH-496001 (Chhattisgarh)
P : 99810 99555, E : info@csrcompetitiveness.com
Northern Region Office
24/1-2 Circular Road, Dalanwala Dehradun- 248001
Uttarakhand, Email: anil@indiacsr.in, Cell: +91-9412009273
Subscription Service
To subscribe, contact at info@csrcompetitiveness.com
The current rate of subscription are :
One Year: Rs.1000 | Two Years : Rs.2000 | Five Years : Rs. 5000
CSR & Competitiveness does not accept responsibility for returning
unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. All unsolicited material
should be accompanied by self-addressed envelopes and sufficient
postage.
Reproduction is whole or in part without written permission of the
publisher is prohibited. All right reserved. The views and opinions
expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher or the editorial staff. Please inform us if any copyright has been
inadvertently infringed. CSR INDIA CORPORATE SOCIAL SERVICES
PVT LTD and CSR & COMPETITIVENESS is not responsible and liable
for any comments and articles published by its contributors and will
not be liable for any damages. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Raigarh, India.
On behalf of CSR India Corporate Social Services Pvt.Ltd. published,
edited and printed by Rusen Kumar. Printed at Neha Offset, Bazi Rao
Para, Near Church, Raigarh-496001, Chhattisgarh INDIA and published at 222, Krishn Vatika, Church Road, Boirdadar, Raigarh-496001,
Chhattisgarh INDIA.
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Vol.1 I Issue -2 I August 2013 I Monthly
Dear Readers,
I am very happy to share with you that we are
receiving overwhelming response for the magazine ‘CSR & Competiveness’ from the leaders
from corporate, civil society, researchers and
students of not only India but also from various
part of the globe.
Thank you all for giving this overwhelming & encouraging response, support and useful suggestions and finally your solidarity towards CSR and
the cause, “CSR & Competitiveness” stands for.
You are well aware that historic Companies Bill
has been passed on August 8, 2013. The Indian
republic has made a dynamic move by introducing the Companies Bill 2012 to present the
new form and structure of the companies act
promulgated way back in 1956. We are committed to keep a tab on the changing dimensions of the business environment and sensitize
our readers of the latest updates to facilitate
them in formulation of strategies to make their
products, services and the organization globally
competitive. The new bill has ushered an era of
optimism among the corporates with a positive
view angle. The regulatory environment in India
has witnessed a paradigm shift thereby leading
to new set of challenges posed to the corporate
world to comply with the latest provisions of the
companies bill 2012 in a time bound manner.
Rusen Kumar
Editor & Director
‘‘
‘CSR and Competitiveness’ has been dynamically proactive to analyze
the latest developments
in the various dimensions
of the business environment so as to sensitize
and facilitate its’ readers
to help them evolve world
class strategies to become
globally competitive.
‘CSR and Competitiveness’ has been dynamically
proactive to analyze the latest developments in
the various dimensions of the business environment so as to sensitize and facilitate its’ readers
to help them evolve world class strategies to
become globally competitive.
It is the best time for the Indian corporate world
to analyze the varied provisions of the recently
passed Companies Bill 2012, in the Lok Sabha to
re-align the strategic roadmap of the organization and the CSR strategies to make their organization globally competitive and sustainable.
The government and the corporates have done
a commendable job by structuring, aligning the
priorities of the government and the various
stakeholders in the form of companies bill 2012.
The most challenging imperative for the companies is to bring about a change in composition
and configuration of the top level management
including the board of directors to ensure scrupulous compliance to the provisions of the Companies Bill 2012 in a time bound manner. The
dynamic team of board of directors is required in
the light of various expectations from the compliance perspective as well as to ensure development of team of highly competent professionals
in a conducive environment committed to the
cause of excellence and innovation on a dynamic basis in the light of exponentially dynamic
dimensions of the business environment.
The secret of success in the modern digital era
would be to create a world class team of professionals at various levels of organizational
hierarchy committed to the cause of learning
and development focusing on innovation and
excellence on a dynamic basis to be proactively
dynamic, committed to deliver quick response
to challenges and opportunities in the globally
dynamic corporate world.
To conclude, the Companies Bill 2012, has led to
the emergence of challenges and opportunities
for the companies looking at change with a proactive view angle. It is the best time to introspect
and evolve the strategic planning process reoriented towards highest degrees of compliance in
the light of the recent changes. The companies
which shall proactively plan and implement the
strategic roadmap to combat the challenges
arising in the new regulatory environment shall
be able to tide over the challenges of the competitive market scenario at the national and
international level. The enhanced level of focus
on strategic planning, implementation and control optimally complimented and supplemented
by an organizational environment driven by the
culture of learning and innovation in all facets
and domain areas shall make the organization,
its products and services globally competitive.
CSR Toon- Renowned Cartoonist Triyambak Sharma, Editor, Cartoon Watch, the only
monthly Cartoon Magazine of India, has agreed
to contribute ‘CSR Toon’ for the magazine. We
welcome him in our editorial board and hope
our readers will enjoy his creativity. Triambak is
featured in Limca Book of Records for publishing
only bilingual cartoon magazine over 15 years.
Enjoy the ‘CSR Toon’ published in cover page.
‘‘
Editorial and Advisory Board
Rusen Kumar
Editor
Dr (Prof.) Rana Singh
Executive Editor
ranasingh@indiacsr.in
Anil Jaggi
Executive Editor
anil@indiacsr.in
Vijay Kapur
Eminent CSR Consultant & Author
Director – Kohana CSR
Layout -
Enakshi Sengupta
Eminent CSR Consultant & Author
Director – Kohana CSR
CSR & Competitiveness
Prof BD Singh
Renowned Academician & Author
Advertisement/Circulation/Subscription enquiries
Dr (Prof) Saurabh Mittal
Sub-Editor, New Delhi
saurabh@indiacsr.in
Dr K K Upadhyay
Head CSR-Ficci Aditya Birla CSR
Centre of Excellence
Harsha Mukherjee
Sub-Editor, Mumbai
harsha@indiacsr.in
Monaem Ben Lellahom
Co-Founder & Head of Sustainability Advisory Services Sustainable
Square Consultancy and Think Tank
UAE
Triambak Sharma
Renowned Cartoonist
Editor-Cartoon
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
Nuage Designs [ www.nuagedesign.in ]
Editorial Office
222, Krishn Vatika, Near Shalini School, Church Road, Boirdadar,
RAIGARH-496001 (Chhattisgarh)
csrcompetitiveness@gmail.com
222, Krishn Vatika, Near Shalini School, Church Road, Boirdadar,
RAIGARH-496001 (Chhattisgarh)
P : 99810 99555, E : info@csrcompetitiveness.com
Northern Region Office
24/1-2 Circular Road, Dalanwala Dehradun- 248001
Uttarakhand, Email: anil@indiacsr.in, Cell: +91-9412009273
Subscription Service
To subscribe, contact at info@csrcompetitiveness.com
The current rate of subscription are :
One Year: Rs.1000 | Two Years : Rs.2000 | Five Years : Rs. 5000
CSR & Competitiveness does not accept responsibility for returning
unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. All unsolicited material
should be accompanied by self-addressed envelopes and sufficient
postage.
Reproduction is whole or in part without written permission of the
publisher is prohibited. All right reserved. The views and opinions
expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher or the editorial staff. Please inform us if any copyright has been
inadvertently infringed. CSR INDIA CORPORATE SOCIAL SERVICES
PVT LTD and CSR & COMPETITIVENESS is not responsible and liable
for any comments and articles published by its contributors and will
not be liable for any damages. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Raigarh, India.
On behalf of CSR India Corporate Social Services Pvt.Ltd. published,
edited and printed by Rusen Kumar. Printed at Neha Offset, Bazi Rao
Para, Near Church, Raigarh-496001, Chhattisgarh INDIA and published at 222, Krishn Vatika, Church Road, Boirdadar, Raigarh-496001,
Chhattisgarh INDIA.
News
Tata Steel’s direct contribution to community development is Rs. 170.76 crores which is
3.37% of the Company’s Profit After Tax. This is not inclusive of the expenditure on environment, which is more than Rs. 300 cores.
04
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
T
Tata Steel CSR Touches 20 Lakh
Lives in Jharkhand and Odisha
ata Steel Ltd spent Rs. 170.76 crores towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) during financial year
2012-13 which is 3.37% of company’s Profit After Tax
(PAT) excluding spend on Environment Sustainability
which is about Rs. 300 crores. The Tata Steel CSR initiatives touched nearly 2 million lives last years, Tata Steel
said in Annual Report for the year 2012-13. Profit After
Tax at Rs 5063 crores during the financial year 2012-13
was lower by 24% as compared Rs 6696 to the financial year 2011-12.
The amount was spent under the broad categories
such as infrastructure development to improvement
to quality of the life of community, community development, health & medical support and support to
charities and NGOs & Government for social cause.
The operational area of the Company is the state of
Jharkhand and Odisha are plagued by poor social infrastructure for health services, education, road, electricity and other basic amenities. The range of interventions encompassed infrastructure support to rural
and urban schools through scholarships and coaching
classes as well as incentives like free mid-day meals to
encourage attendance form part of its key thrust area
for improving the quality of life.
Solar Streetlight Project
For instance under the solar streetlight project Tata
Steel installed solar streetlights in villages. To ensure
the upkeep of installed lights and their sustained use
by the village community, discussions were held with
community resulting in the constitution of committees called ‘Urja Samitee’. Select members from the
village community are enlisted onto the Urja Samitees
(Energy Committees) and are responsible for the
maintenance of the solar panels.
Thrust Area for CSR
Tata Steel focuses on responsible business practices
with community-centric interventions. The thrust area
for Tata Steel are sustainable livelihood-specially skill
development and employability training, education
and health care, all of which constitute the Human Development Index- a quality of life indicator.
Partners for CSR Implementation
Tata Steel partners with NGOs, Governments and funding agencies to implement its CSR interventions in the
thematic area of health, education, livelihoods and
ethnicity. Through employee volunteerism it also utilises in house resource persons.
The CSR activities are implements through the following delivery arms:
1. Corporate Sustainability Services comprising, Tata
Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS), Tribal
Culture Society (TCS), Tata Steel Family Initiatives
Foundation (TSFIF), Tata Steel Skill Development
Society (TSSDS), Urban Services and Education
2. Medical Services
3. Sports Department
4. Tata Steel Adventure Foundation
5. Jamshedpur Utilities & Services Company Limited
6. Other societies such as Ardeshir Dalal Memorial
Hospital, Blood Banks, Kanti Lal Gandhi Memorial
Hospital, etc.
7. Tata Relief Committee
Impact Assessment
ods such as social audit, aspiration surveys, village level study of Human Development Index (HDI) and XISS
JRD Tata Chair.
Social Audit : As a socially responsible corporate citizen, Tata Steel commissions social audits through independent professionals to get authentic and comprehensive review of its social activities. The Social Audit is
conducted in ten years.
Aspiration Surveys : Conducted among community
residing in the operational areas of Tata Steel in Odisha.
Village Level Study of Human Development Index
(HDI): Conducted by a team of researchers from Xavier
Labour Research Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur.
XISS JRD Tata Chair : The ‘JRD Tata Chair’ has been
instituted at Xavier Institute of Social Services, Ranchi
with the objective of conducting a study on ‘ Contribution of Tata Steel towards Sustainable Development .
The value underpinning all business actions at Tata
Steel is to serve Common Good, ensuring that all its
excellence programmes integrate economic, environmental and social performance driven.
What Does Sustainability Means to
Tata Steel?
Tata Steel has been one of the first companies in India to adopt sustainability as a policy. It is a core value,
built on our respect for people, our desire for growth
and our respect for the environment. Building further
on this vision, Tata Steel is the first Indian company
to be a part of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) – an international initiative towards
voluntary communication on how an organisation’s
strategy, governance, performance and prospects lead
to the creation of value over the short, medium and
long-term.
(Tata Steel, 106th Annual Report-2012-13)
The impact assessment is done through various meth-
Fullerton India Bags Asia CSR Award
for Community Development
Fullerton India has a widespread reach in Rural India through its network of 144 rural business
branches called Gramshakti, which service over 15,000 villages.
Inputs for handloom weavers for adoption of new techniques, designs and materials.
Training in sewing embroidery using machines to cater to
the garment industry
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
Fullerton India Credit Company Limited, a leading NonBanking Finance Company, has been granted the Asia
CSR Award for Community Development at the 3rd
Asia’s Best CSR Practices Awards event, held in Singapore on August 1, 2013. On behalf of Company, the
award was received by Anindo Mukherjee, Head of Integrated Risk Management, Fullerton Financial Holdings,
Singapore & Cynthia Lee, Director on Board of Fullerton
India & Head of Human Resources, Fullerton Financial
Holdings, Singapore.
The award was bestowed, recognising Fullerton India’s
Rural Livelihood Advancement initiative and its large
impact on rural households across India. The award is
Asia’s most prestigious and highest recognition of corporate organisations that have created a significant and
positive impact on the lives of people in society.
Fullerton India has a rich history of rural development
initiatives in India and has won a string of awards for its
CSR initiatives across various platforms, adding another
feather to its cap with this esteemed win.
Commenting on the occasion, Ravi Shankar, Executive
Vice President Marketing & Rural Business stated, “Fullerton India is strongly committed towards the overall
development of rural India and works towards this by
facilitating new and alternate vocational training programs to men and women in villages, across our rural
branch catchments.”
He added, “Our CSR initiative is focused on Rural Livelihood Advancement and designed to have a sustainable
impact on its beneficiaries. These programs aimed at rural households are implemented by engaging over 2000
of our employees. We are honoured to have received
this award as recognition towards our efforts and initiatives.”
As part of its Livelihood Advancement Initiative, Fullerton India conceptualises various Livelihood Programs
with Partner organisations across various disciplines,
thus bringing together Partner organisations like the
Government, NGOs, Socio-Economic development organisations, Manufacturing and Trading organisations
in the Private sector to implement the programs.
Fullerton India Credit Company Limited has over 360
branches spread across 20 states in urban and rural
centres. It offers several retail finance products for varying needs of customers ranging from rural households
to SMEs, in the locations it serves. Fullerton India has a
widespread reach in Rural India through its network of
144 rural business branches called Gramshakti, which
service over 15,000 villages. Fullerton India is a whollyowned subsidiary of Fullerton Financial Holdings, Singapore, which is a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings of
Singapore.
Cover Story
Historic Companies Bill, 2012
05
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Parliament Passes the
Historic Companies Bill, 2012
Six decades after the first Companies Act was enacted and over 20 years after liberalisation,
India inched closer to bringing more contemporary issues, such as corporate governance, investor protection,
corporate social responsibility and measures to check frauds, under the legislation.
‘‘
With the new legislation, India would
possibly become
the first country
to have Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) spending
through a statutory provision.
W
hen Companies Act, 1956, was promulgated there were only
30,000 companies while in May 2013, there are 13.21 Lakh
firms in India.
The historical New Companies Bill, which will replace the nearly 57-yearold Companies Act of 1956, was finally passed in Rajya Sabha by voice
vote on August 8, 2013. The lower house of parliament Lok Sabha had
already been cleared the bill December 18, 2012. Now, only the President’s assent will be required for it to become law. The draft rules on the
companies act will then be made public and the act comes into effect
with notification by Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
Wrapping up the debate in Rajya Sabha, Corporate Affairs Minister
Sachin Pilot termed the passage of the legislation a “historic feat”. “The
passage of the Bill will give impetus to the growth momentum,” Pilot
said, adding, “The focus of the bill is to enhance transparency and ensure fewer regulations, self reporting and disclosure...It will outline the
positivity in the economy”. The new law requires companies that meet
certain set of criteria, to spend at least two per cent of their average
profits in the last three years towards Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) activities.
‘‘
Replying to the debate on the bill in the Rajya Sabha, Corporate Affairs
Minister Sachin Pilot said it sought to bring India’s corporate governance in sync with the changing business environment of the 21st century. Pilot said the bill was progressive and the main focus was
on enhancing transparency and
compliance and it would help
growth of the economy.
“For the next two to three decades, this (new legislation) will
bring positivity in the economy,”
said Pilot adding that the views
of all the stakeholders, including
industry chambers, have been
taken into consideration. “The
focus of the bill is to enhance
transparency and ensure fewer
regulations, self-reporting and
disclosure,” Pilot said.
The Bill has been designed to
consist of 29 chapters, containing
470 clauses and 7 schedules.
The law has been rewritten extensively with several new provisions for investor protection,
better corporate governance and corporate social responsibility etc. It
defines a number of new terms such as Associate Company, Small Company, Employee Stock Option, Promoter, Related Party, Turnover, Chief
Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Global Depository Receipt,
that have come into vogue in recent times.
The new Bill has introduced numerous changes and concepts which
should simplify regulations and bring greater clarity and transparency
in managing businesses. The global environment calls for economic
laws and regulations that are effective and efficient, have a reasonable
compliance cost and keep Indian businesses competitive. Upon enactment, there will also arise the indispensable need for aligning the existing regulations with the new law.
Industry hopes that the working rules which are expected to be put out
in the public domain before notification would provide greater clarity
on the operative provisions in the Bill while taking into account legitimate concerns of India Inc.
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
Journey of Passing the Bill
The bill was first introduced as Companies Bill
2009 in Lok Sabha on August 3, 2009. It was
referred to Parliamentary Standing Committee
on Finance a month later. It brought back to the
Lok Sabha as Companies Bill 2011, but again
referred to the Standing Committee . Government accepted about 96 per cent of the suggestions of the Standing Committee. The bill
was cleared by the Lok Sabha after the standing committee submitted its report in June
2012. Lok Sabha had been passed the bill December 18, 2012
The Companies Bill, which will replace legislation that has often been criticised for being
outdated and cumbersome, had been in the
works for at least a decade but gained momentum after an accounting scandal at Satyam
Computer Services Limited in the year 2009.
This was country’s biggest corporate fraud case
where Satyam Computer Services caused loss
to the investors to the tune of Rs.14,162 crore.
The company head, Ramalinga Raju and members of his family secured illegal gains to the
tune of about Rs.2,743 crore by various tricks.
The new Companies Bill, on its enactment, will
allow the country to have a modern legislation
for growth and regulation of corporate sector
in India. In view of various reformatory and
contemporary provisions of the law, together
with omission of existing unwanted and obsolete compliance requirements, the companies
in the country will be able to comply with the
requirements of the Companies Act in a better
and more effective manner.
The existing statute for regulation of companies in the country, viz. the Companies Act,
1956 had been under consideration for quite
long for comprehensive revision in view of the
changing economic and commercial environment nationally as well as internationally. The
new law will facilitate business-friendly corporate regulation, improve corporate governance
norms, enhance accountability on the part of
corporates/ auditors, raise levels of transparency and protect interests of investors, particularly small investors.
The Companies Bill is commensurate with global standards vis-à-vis disclosure requirements,
increased democratic rights for shareholders,
self-regulation and accountability. At the same
time, it also seeks to restrain the management
powers of promoters, who nurture the company during its initial stages and provide the seed
capital.
In a country where 75-80% of the businesses are family-run/ promoter-driven, industry hopes that the new law would be able to
achieve the fine balancing between ownership
and management, which is crucial for success
of any enterprise and also fostering the spirit of
entrepreneurship.
Cover Story
Historic Companies Bill, 2012
06
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
The Bill provides for class action suit, the move aids individual shareholder to take action against companies,
better disclosure requirements in financial statements
and disclosure of interests of directors etc. The Bill has
tightened the screws on insider trading norms in the
country, it aims at prohibition on forward dealings in securities of company by key managerial personnel, insider trading rules and restriction on non-cash transactions
involving directors.
Highlights of the Companies Bill
•
Concept of One Person Company (OPC limited) introduced. Which will be treated as Private Limited
Company only.
•
The bill increased the number of members of private companies from 50 to 200. This allows companies access to large pool of capital without going
public.
•
cent stake against no thresholds earlier.
•
•
The bill restricts creation of multi-layered holding structures, prohibiting making investments
through more than two layers of investment companies.
•
The new bill bans holding ‘Treasury Stock’, which is
often used by companies to increase shareholding
or future monetization after consolidation.
•
The new bill asks that listed companies and other
specified companies will have to change individual
auditor after five years and audit firm after 10 years.
The old bill had no provisions for this.
•
Under the new bill, companies are required to
spend at least 2 per cent of their net profit on Cor-
The new bill gives recognition to transfer restrictions on inter-se shareholders – ‘Right of First Refusal’ will be enforceable. This would clear existing
ambiguity on legal enforceability on transfer restrictions under JV/shareholder agreements.
•
•
•
•
The new bill also has a detailed mechanism for acquisition of shares by majority shareholder from minority shareholders.
The salient features of the
new Companies Law
While the old bill only permitted merger of a foreign company with an Indian company, the new
bill allows merger of Indian companies into foreign
companies which would aid in consolidation of
cross-border businesses/assets.
c
e-Governance Initiatives;
c
Good Corporate Governance and CSR;
The new bill permits merger of a listed company
with an unlisted one, subject to exit opportunity
being offered to shareholders of the listed company.
c
Enhanced Disclosure norms;
c
Enhanced accountability of Management;
c
Stricter enforcement;
While the old bill depended on precedents for
merger of a subsidiary with a parent (or between
two small companies), the new bill provides a separate and simplified regime for this without any approval from High Court.
c
Audit accountability;
c
Protection for minority shareholders;
c
Investor protection and activism;
The new bill also gives rights for objections to
schemes to only creditors who owed over 5 per
cent and minority shareholders with over 10 per
•
The new bill also requires companies to appoint
one woman director.
•
The proposed legislation would ensure setting up
of special courts for speedy trial and stronger steps
for transparent corporate governance practices and
curb corporate misdoings.
•
The changed law allows more statutory powers to
the government’s investigative arm Serious Fraud
Investigation Office (SFIO) to tackle corporate fraud.
•
To help in curbing a major source of corporate delinquency, introduces punishment for falsely inducing a person to enter into any agreement with bank
or financial institution, with a view to obtaining
credit facilities.
•
The limit in respect of maximum number of companies in which a person may be appointed as auditor
has been proposed as 20.
•
Independent directors’ shall be excluded for the
purpose of computing ‘one third of retiring directors’.
•
Appointment of auditors for 5 years shall be subject
to ratification by members at every Annual General
Meeting.
•
‘Whole-time director’ has been included in the definition of the term ‘key managerial personnel’.
•
The term ‘private placement’ has been defined to
bring clarity.
•
Maximum number of directors in a private company increased from 12 to 15 which can be increased
further by special resolution.
•
Financial Year of any company can end only on
March 31 and only exception is for companies,
which are holding / subsidiary of a foreign entity requiring consolidation outside India, can have a different financial year with the approval of Tribunal.
Business friendly coporate Regulation/
pro-business initiatives;
c
c
porate Social Responsibility (CSR). The companies
to give preference to the local areas of their operation for such spending.
Better framework for insolvency regulation;
and Institutional structure.
Major Amendment in the Bill are as follows:
1.
(Amendment in Clause 135):
In the Section on Corporate Social Responsibility
(Section135), which is introduced as a statutory
provision for the first time, the words ‘make every
endeavour to’ have been omitted from its Subclause (5). So that the first para of Sub-clause (5)
of Clause 135 now reads as follows: “The Board of
every company referred to in sub-section (1), shall
ensure that the company spends in every financial year, at least two per cent of the average net
profits of the company made during the three immediately preceding financial years, in pursuance
of its Corporate Social Responsibility Policy.”
Such clause is also amended to provide that
the company shall give preference to local areas where it operates, for spending amount earmarked for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
activities. The approach to ‘implement or cite reasons for non implementation’ retained.
2.
4.
6.
(Amendment in Clause 186):
Clause 186 amended to provide that the rate of
interest on inter corporate loans will be the prevailing rate of interest on dated Government Securities.
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
(Amendment in Clause 203):
Provisions relating to separation of office of Chairman and Managing Director (MD) modified to allow, in certain cases, a class of companies having
multiple business and separate divisional MDs to
appoint same person as chairman as well as MD.
7.
(Amendment in Clause 147 And 245):
Provisions relating to extent of criminal liability of
auditors - particularly in case of partners of an audit firm - reviewed to bring clarity. Further, to ensure that the liability in respect of damages paid
by auditor, as per the order of the Court, (in case of
conviction under Clause 147) is promptly used for
payment to affected parties including tax authorities, Central Government has been empowered to
specify any statutory body/authority for such purpose.
8.
(Amendment in Clause 143):
Provisions relating to audit of Government Companies by Comptroller and Auditor General of India (C&AG) modified to enable C&AG to perform
such audit more effectively.
(Amendment in Clause 144):
Provisions relating to restrictions on non audit
services modified to provide that such restrictions
shall not apply to associate companies and further to provide for transitional period for complying with such provisions.
(Amendment in Clause 36):
To help in curbing a major source of corporate delinquency, Clause 36 (c) amended, to also include
punishment for falsely inducing a person to enter
into any agreement with bank or financial institution, with a view to obtaining credit facilities.
3.
5.
(Amendment in Clause 141):
The limit in respect of maximum number of companies in which a person may be appointed as auditor has been proposed as twenty companies.
9.
(Amendment in Clause 139):
Appointment of auditors for five years shall be
subject to ratification by members at every Annual General Meeting.
10. (Amendment in Clause 139):
Provisions relating to voluntary rotation of auditing partner (in case of an audit firm) modified to
provide that members may rotate the partner ‘at
such interval as may be resolved by members’ instead of ‘every year’ proposed in the clause earlier.
11. (Amendment in Clause 2):
Whole-time director’ has been included in the
definition of the term ‘key managerial personnel’.
12. (Amendment in Clause 42):
The term ‘private placement’ has been defined to
bring clarity.
13. (Amendment in Clause 61):
Approval of the Tribunal shall be required for consolidation and division of share capital only if the
voting percentage of shareholders changes consequent on such consolidation.
14. (Amendment in Clause 152):
Clarification included in the Bill to provide that
‘Independent Directors’ shall be excluded for the
purpose of computing ‘one third of retiring Directors’. This would bring harmonisation between
provisions of Clause 149(12) and rotational norms
provided in Clause 152.
15. (Amendment in Clause 470):
Provisions in respect of removal of difficulty modified to provide that the power to remove difficulties may be exercised by the Central Government
up to ‘five years’ (after enactment of the legislation) instead of earlier up to ‘three years’. This is
considered necessary to avoid serious hardship
and dislocation since many provisions of the Bill
involve transition from pre-existing arrangements
to new systems.
Cover Story
Historic Companies Bill, 2012
07
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Business Chambers Welcome
the New Companies Bill
Board Shall Ensure the Company CSR Spends
Leading business chambers and professional body including FICCI, CII and The Institute
of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has
welcomed the New Law.
“We heartily welcome the passageoftheCompaniesBillwhich
will give India a comprehensive
and contemporary legislation.
This legislation is indeed a milestone in the history of company
lawandwillrevolutionizetheadministrationandmanagementof
businessesinthetimestocome.
FICCIhopesthattherearenoinconsistencies
in various laws since consistency and certainty in laws helps in effective functioning
ofbusiness.Anylegislationevolveswithtime
andwearecertainandhopefulthatthenew
Companies Act while providing an enabling
environmentforsmoothworkingandgrowth
ofIndiaInc.willalsoaddressvalidconcernsof
theIndustry.TheBillhasbeenthroughmany
stagesofdiscussionandhasbroughtinmany
radicalchangestotheerstwhileAct.FICCIhas
been part of these discussions and compliments the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and
its officials for adopting a highly pragmatic
andconsultativeapproachtowardsevolution
ofthepresentdayCompaniesBill.”
Naina Lal Kidwai,President,FICCI
Once the new law is put in place, profit-making
companies will be required to spend two per cent
oftheiraveragenetprofitofthreeyearsonactivities
relatedtocorporatesocialresponsibility(CSR).Three
yearswillbecountedasprecedingtheoneduring
whichCSRwastobeundertaken.
However, the government has diluted the mandatoryprovisionforCSRafterobjectionsfromIndiaInc.
Thosefailingtomeettheobligationwillhavetoexplainthereasonsfortheshortfall.Thenormisvalid
onlyforcompanieswithnetworthofRs.500croreor
more,orturnoverofRs.1,000croreormore,oranet
profit of Rs. 5 crore or more, during the past three
financial years. Experts believe this would bring a
paradigmshiftbecausetheoldlegislationonlyprovidedforvoluntaryguidelinesforCSR.Itwillcreate
anopportunityforcompaniestoevolveinnovative
strategiestocontributetowardsinclusivegrowth.
The Purpose of Inclusion of CSR in the Companies
Bill
• TheCSRprovisionsoftheBillseektocreatean
enablingenvironment;
• Billallowscorporatestoharnessandchannelize
their core competencies as well as develop effectivebusinessmodels;
• Itwillpromoteandfacilitatefarbetterconnect
betweenbusinessesandcommunities.
• Itwillfacilitatedeeperthoughtandlongerterm
strategies for addressing some of our most
persistent social, economic and environmental
problems;
• It will assist in synergizing partnerships between Corporates, Governments, Civil Society
Organizations,AcademicInstitutionsandSocial
Entrepreneurs.
Catalytic Role of the Bill
(c) monitor the Corporate Social Responsibility
Policyofthecompanyfromtimetotime.
(4) TheBoardofeverycompanyreferredtoinsubsection(1)shall,
(a) after taking into account the recommendations made by the Corporate Social ResponsibilityCommittee,approvetheCorporateSocial
ResponsibilityPolicyforthecompanyanddisclose contents of such Policy in its report and
alsoplaceitonthecompany’swebsite,ifany,in
suchmannerasmaybeprescribed;and
(b) ensurethattheactivitiesasareincludedinCorporateSocialResponsibilityPolicyofthecompanyareundertakenbythecompany.
(5) The Board of every company referred to in
sub-section(1),shallensurethatthecompany
spends,ineveryfinancialyear,atleasttwoper
cent.oftheaveragenetprofitsofthecompany
madeduringthethreeimmediatelypreceding
financial years, in pursuance of its Corporate
SocialResponsibilityPolicy:
Providedthatthecompanyshallgivepreferenceto
thelocalareaandareasarounditwhereitoperates,
forspendingtheamountearmarkedforCorporate
SocialResponsibilityactivities:
Providedfurtherthatifthecompanyfailstospend
such amount, the Board shall, in its report made
under clause (o) of sub-section (3) of section 134,
specifythereasonsfornotspendingtheamount.
Explanation. For the purposes of this section“averagenetprofit”shallbecalculatedinaccordance
withtheprovisionsofsection198.
•
“WecommendtheGovernmentfor
prioritizingtheBill.ItshowstheGovernment’s commitment to usher in
theneweraofcorporateregulation.
TheCompaniesBillasinitspresent
form is a culmination of efforts for
over a decade and we are happy
that many of CII’s views have been
incorporatedinthelegislation.Now
thatthelawisready,itistimetofocusand
work on the practical aspects of complying
with its provisions. CII will continue to engage with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs
toworkoutthemodalitiesforvariousprovisionsthatprescribedelegatedlegislationin
theformofRules.Onesuchvitalprovisionis
surelytheclausedealingwithCSRspend.”
Chandrajit Banerjee,
DirectorGeneral,
ConfederationofIndianIndustry
“ Thenewlawpromisesimprovedcorporategovernancenorms,enhanced
disclosuresandtransparency,facilitationofresponsibleentrepreneurship,
increased accountability of company
managements and auditors, protection of interest of investors particularly small and minority investors,
better shareholder democracy, facilitation of corporate social responsibility
(CSR) and stricter enforcement processes.
New Companies law will further accelerate
the transformation of Company Secretaries
intocorporategovernanceprofessionalsby
recognizingthemasKeyManagerialPersons
in a Company along with the Chief ExecutiveOfficer/ManagingDirector/Manager,
Whole-Time Director and Chief Financial
Officer.TheCompanySecretaryisexpected
tobecometheChiefGovernanceOfficerof
theCompanyandleadthegovernanceinitiatives. It envisages a much larger role for
Company Secretaries in areas of secretarial
audit, restructuring, liquidation, valuation
andmuchmore.”
S. N. Ananthasubramanian,
President,CouncilofTheInstituteofCompanySecretariesofIndia
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
•
•
The Bill also provides great flexibility to businessandindustryforstrategizingandconductingtheirCSRinitiatives;
Intention of government and purpose of bill
isnottomakearigidstructurewhichwillconstrainthecreativityandimaginationofthecorporates;
It will enhance their efforts, provide an even
broaderplatformandre-energizetheirefforts.
Company Bill, 2012
Section 135
(1) Everycompanyhavingnetworthofrupeesfive
hundred crore or more, or turnover of rupees
one thousand crore or more or a net profit of
rupeesfivecroreormoreduringanyfinancial
yearshallconstituteaCorporateSocialResponsibility Committee of the Board consisting of
three or more directors, out of which at least
onedirectorshallbeanindependentdirector.
(2) TheBoard’sreportundersub-section(3)ofsection 134 shall disclose the composition of the
CorporateSocialResponsibilityCommittee.
(3) TheCorporateSocialResponsibilityCommittee
shall,
(a) formulateandrecommendtotheBoard,aCorporate Social Responsibility Policy which shall
indicatetheactivitiestobeundertakenbythe
companyasspecifiedinScheduleVII;
(b) recommendtheamountofexpendituretobe
incurred on the activities referred to in clause
(a);and
Number of Registered Companies Crossed 13-lakh Mark
Thetotalnumberofregisteredcompaniesinthecountryhascrossed13lakhmark,but1.44lakhofthese
firmsare‘dormant’andhavenotfiledtheirannualreturnsforpastthreeyears.
AsonMay31,2013,therewere13.21lakhcompaniesregisteredwithMinistryofCorporateAffairs.Ofthese,
asmanyas2.6lakhcompanieshavebeenclosedforvariousreasonsincludingcourtorderandvoluntary
windingup,whileanother30,435firmsareintheprocessofbeingliquidated,anofficialstatementsaid.
Besides,1.44lakhcompanieshavenotfiledtheirannualreturns/balancesheetsformorethanpastthree
consecutiveyearsandareclassifiedas‘dormant’.Thereare8.77lakhactivecompaniesofwhich1.5lakhhad
beenincorporatedwithinthepreceding18months.
New Rules to be in Place by FY’14 End
TheMinistryofCorporateAffairsexpectsalltherulesregardingtheCompaniesbilllikelytobeinplaceby
theendofthisfiscal,aftertakingintoaccountthesuggestionsfromexperts,publicandotherstakeholders.
Arulesadvisorycommitteecomprisingmembersfromleadingindustrychambers,dignitaries,expertsand
lawyersamongothers,iscurrentlyworkingondraftrulesandthesameareexpectedtobeputforthonMCA
websiteforpubliccommentsbytheendofthismonthitself,MinistryofCorporateAffairsJointSecretary
RenukaKumarsaid.
Philanthropy
Nilekani is among India’s growing list of “givers” who have pledged a significant portion
of their wealth towards philanthropy.
08
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Rohini Nilekani Sells Infosys Shares,
Raises Rs.163 cr for Philanthropic work
“For the past several years, I have taken philanthropic initiatives in multiple sectors such as education, water, environment and governance among others. The proceeds of the sale of shares,
post tax, will be deployed towards these and other philanthropic contributions, over time.”
- Rohini Nilekani
I
‘‘
An ex-journalist, author
and philanthropist, high
net worth individual
(HNI) Rohini Nilekani,
wife of one of Infosys
co-founder Nandan
Nilekani, raised about Rs
163.58 crore by selling
5.77 lakh of her shares of
the IT services company
for philanthropic work.
nfosys Ltd, a global leader in business consulting
and technology solutions, has said that wife of one
of its co-founder Nandan Nilekani, Rohini Nilekani,
has raised about Rs.163.58 crore by selling 577,000
shares of the company for philanthropic work in India.
Nilekani is the wife of Infosys co-founder Nandan
Nilekani, who is currently the chairman of the Unique
Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Mr Nilekani
founded Infosys with NR Narayana Murthy and five
others in 1981. He was the chief executive of Infosys
from March 2002 to April 2007.
Nandan holds 1.45% stake or 83,45,870 shares in this
Bangalore- based firm.
In a BSE filing, Infosys said Rohini Nilekani, who is
also a promoter in the company, sold 577,000 shares
between 16-19 July for a total of Rs.1,63,51,83,925.
After the sale, her stake in Infosys stood at 1.31% or
7,501,174 shares, it added. For the period ended 30
June, her stake in the firm was 1.41% or 8,078,174
shares.
In the filing, she said: “For the past several years, I
have taken philanthropic initiatives in multiple sectors such as education, water, environment and
governance among others. The proceeds of the sale
of shares, post tax, will be deployed towards these
and other philanthropic contributions, over time.”
Rohini, 53, has been an active woman philanthropist
for more than a decade. Her organization Arghyam
grants funds to organisations, which implement
and manage groundwater and sanitation projects
in India. Arghyam has made grants to recipients in
22 states of India since 2005, the year of its founding. Arghyam, a foundation she set up with a private
endowment, to work on water and sanitation issues
in India. She is also Founder-Chairperson of Pratham
Books, a charitable trust which seeks to put “A book in
every child’s hand.”
Rohini has been deeply involved with development
issues and is currently a member of the Audit Advisory Board of the Comptroller and Auditor General of
India. She sits on the Boards of many non-profits, notably ATREE (the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology
and the Environment) and Sanghamithra Rural Financial Services. Rohini has authored a novel – “Stillborn” - and also a non–fiction account of dialogues
she moderated between social and corporate leaders
called “Uncommon Ground”. Nilekani is among India’s
growing list of “givers” who have pledged a significant
portion of their wealth towards philanthropy.
‘‘
Tata Chemicals Invites Nominations
for Best Chemistry Teacher Award 2013
M
UMBAI: In line with its mission of serving society through science,
Tata Chemicals, a Tata Group Company, is organizing its 3rd edition of the annual BCTA (Best Chemistry Teacher Award) 2013 along
with Association of Chemistry Teachers (ACT) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). These awards recognize exceptional contribution of
individuals from the Chemistry teaching fraternity and inspire a whole
new generation to actively pursue chemistry and its allied subjects.
Nominations to apply for the awards will be open until September 30,
2013, wherein the applicant should be a full-time teacher engaged in
teaching chemistry to class XI, XII, Graduate or Post Graduate level.
The applicants of BCTA 2011 and 2012 (excluding the winners) are also
eligible to participate in BCTA 2013. The nominations for the entries
are classified in five distinct award categories: Best Chemistry Teacher
(Class XI/XII and equivalent), Best Chemistry Teacher (Bachelor’s Degree and equivalent), Best Chemistry Teacher (For Master’s Degree and
above), Best Chemistry Teacher for promotion of Chemistry as a subject and Best Young Chemistry Teacher.
Tata Chemicals has created an interactive website called the Human
Touch of Chemistry (www.humantouchofchemistry.com), wherein interested and eligible teachers can send in their nominations online for
awards in the above mentioned categories. Teachers can also submit
handwritten applications by downloading the forms from www.humantouchofchemistry.com
The winners for the awards will be selected by eminent panelists comprising renowned Indian
scientists, professionals and academia. The winner teachers will be felicitated at a formal award
ceremony which will be announced in November 2013.
Best Chemistry Teacher Award
Best Chemistry Teacher Award (BCTA) is an annual initiative organized by Tata Chemicals to honour exemplary chemistry teachers teaching class XI and XII, undergraduate courses and postgraduate levels. The Best Chemistry Teacher should demonstrate expertise in generating a passion for chemistry in students. This Award also takes into cognizance contributions made by
teachers towards promoting overall scientific literacy.
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
“With the tremendous
nationwide response received in the past, we are
excited to launch the third
series of the award. The
BCTA awards recognize
the efforts of teachers who
are responsible in creating
awareness and educating
the younger generation
about the intrinsic presence of Chemistry in everyday life and its role in
meeting modern day challenges. We at Tata Chemicals believe that chemistry
is fundamental to the sustainable development of
human society and this is
in line with our mission of
Serving Society through
Science.”
R. Mukundan
Managing Director,
Tata Chemicals
Article
The Indian philosophy sets it goals beyond this world transforming our lives even in the
next birth and this is where it differs from the philosophy propagated by the western
world.
09
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
CSR and Wisdom
from Ancient India
By Enakshi Sengupta & Vijay Kapur
Vijay Kapur & Enakshi Sengupta are the Executive Directors of Kohana – A dedicated CSR Consultancy (www.kohanacsr.com). They bring with them both academic and practical experience in the field of CSR.
T
‘‘
The importance
of a leader and
his role in society as a protector
and a giver was
also stressed by
Sri Krishna in the
Bhagvad Gita and
the same opinion was voiced
by Manu and
Shukrachrya.
he contemporary concept of Corporate Social Responsibility became
popular in India less than a decade ago.
CSR along with other management theories has been dominated by western
theories which happened due to colonization and widespread use of English
in many countries. When one digs a bit
deeper one can find that concepts and
management theories popularised by
the western world have been in use in India for centuries, long before it was codified by European thinkers. Sharma (2001)
explains that in order to gain success by
effective use of a management concept
it has to emerge from the soil of that
region, firmly rooted to its own culture.
Hence many countries have now taken
the endeavour to look back at their own
ancient scriptures and explore their own
system of management and CSR.
Practice of CSR can be traced back to the
ancient civilization in Greece (Eberstadt
1977). A similar development of CSR took
place in ancient India which was based
on the teaching of Vedas (Pandey and Tripathi 2002). The onus of CSR in ancient
India was bestowed to the king (Rig Veda
1-8), which emphasized the role of a king
as an accumulator of wealth and the use
of his wealth for the betterment of his
stakeholders or subjects. In return the
king would be blessed by his subjects
to grow and shine like a sun. The importance of a leader and his role in society as
a protector and a giver was also stressed
by Sri Krishna in the Bhagvad Gita and
the same opinion was voiced by Manu
and Shukrachrya. The Manusmriti states
that a country reaches a state of lawlessness and chaos without its king as the
king is the messenger of God on earth
to protect and look after his subjects. In
today’s world the state and then the firm
is expected to replace the king and become the benefactor of society.
‘‘
Indian philosophy is deep rooted in the
concept of Dharma or virtue. Dharma
as explained by Radhakrishnan (1929)
forms the basis of all social and moral
values practised by an individual or society. Taittiriya Upanishad instructs all
individuals to speak the truth (satyam
vada) and then to practice virtue (dharma cara). Dharma has been the guiding
light to right living and stability in society. The other concept that is expected to
guide individuals in India is the concept
of Karma (cause and effect). The concept
of Karma implies that the present state of
an individual is determined by their antecedent actions. Hence the law of Karma
along with virtue or Dharma forms the
basis of self-realization.
The Indian philosophy sets it goals beyond this world transforming our lives
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
even in the next birth and this is where it
differs from the philosophy propagated
by the western world.
The teachings in the four Vedas, namely, Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and
Atharva Veda form the fundamental basis of human life on earth. The Rig Veda
particularly states that the cosmic order
is governed by the physical relationship
of man to moral laws. Swami Dayananda
classified the Rig Veda into four orders
(Rig Veda 10-09-9). The first order is that
of ‘Gyana’ or transcendental knowledge
of absolute truth of God. The second order is action or ‘Karma’. The third order is
‘Upasana’ or worship and the fourth order is ‘Vigyan’ or science which is the allencompassing body of knowledge.
Vedic knowledge propagates that right
moral practice couple with knowledge
and right action leads to business excellence and a balanced life. Sri Krishna in
the Bhagvad Gita stated that “value system protects you if you follow it” (dharmo rakshati rakshaitaha). Swami Vivekananda in his teachings and reflection
of the Bhagvad Gita also states that the
basis of the social and political system in
a country rests on the goodness of mankind. While accumulation of wealth is
encouraged in ancient scriptures, it also
proposes the right action on the use of
wealth that is on self and on donation
for the welfare of others. It has been explicitly stated that whatever is given to
others selflessly comes back to the giver
in many folds (Rig Veda 1-8). Business is
viewed as an integral part of society; it
should create wealth for society through
right means of action of “sarva loka hitam” or well-being for all stakeholders.
Vedic literature while talking about business states:
“May we together shield each other
and may we not be envious towards
each other. Wealth is essentially a tool
and it continuous flow must serve the
welfare of the society to achieve the
common good of the society.” (Atharva Veda 3-24-5).
Sri Krishna in the Bhagvad Gita (3-13)
has said that all sorrows from society
would be removed if socially conscious
members of society enjoy remnants of
their work in creating selfless welfare
to others (Muniapan 2007).
When we summarize the teachings of Vedas and Bhagvad Gita we find that these
teachings advocate that business excellence should be weaved around spiritualism and is grounded in the concept of
self-determination and self-realization.
Secondly business should follow right
actions and right measures and should
be virtuous.
Thirdly business should accumulate
wealth through right actions Karma and
wealth should be shared equally with all
stakeholders.
Finally business can only achieve excellence if business practices are ethical
and socially responsible. If one reads the
Arthasashtra we find that Kautiliya while
mentioning the duties of a king, akin to a
business leader of today’s world, he mentions, that the king should have no selfinterest but his satisfaction should lie in
the welfare of his people and is summed
up in the line “bahujana sukhaya bahujana hitayachya” – the welfare of many and
happiness of many. In the Shantiparva of
the Mahabharata, the public interest is to
be accorded precedence over the leader’s interest. Kautiliya lays down three
mian responsibilities of a leader which
are ‘Raksha’ (security), ‘Palan’ (Growth)
and ‘Yogakshma’, which means welfare.
Kautiliya also stressed the happiness
of all stakeholders not only by wealth
and profit but by doing the right things
“sukhasya moolam dharma”.
The knowledge that exists in our ancient
scriptures gives us the direction towards
a better society and towards creating
happier and healthier stakeholders. The
teachings in the ancient scriptures borders on ethics and stakeholder management. Italso forms the basis of a good human being who believes in conducting
his work in a right and virtuous way resulting in the welfare of his stakeholders.
Reference:
• Eberstadt, N.N. (1977)‘What history tells
us about corporate responsibilities’, in A.B.
Carroll(Ed.), Business and Society Review
(Autumn) in Managing Corporate Social
Responsibilities.Boston, MA: Little, Brown
and Company.
• Muniapan, B. and Shaikh, J. (2007) Lessons in Corporate Governance from
Kautilya’sArthashastra in Ancient India,
World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management andSustainable Development
(WREMSD). Special Issue on: “Accounting
StandardsConvergence, Corporate Governance and Sustainability Practices in
East Asia”, Vol. 3,pp.50–51.
• Pandey,R.K.andTripathi,P.S.(2002)‘Vedic
values and corporate excellence’, in S.C.
Dhamijaand V.K. Singh (Eds), Vedic Values
and Corporate Excellence (pp.168–171).
Uttaranchal,India: Gurukul Kaugri University.
• Sharma,G.D.(2001)Managementandthe
IndianEthos.NewDelhi,India:Rupaand
Company.
• Radhakrishnan, S. (1929) Indian Philosophy: Volume 1 (2nd ed.). London, UK:
George Allen andUnwin.
News
Google wants to shine a spotlight on the many Indian non-profits working
to help solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
10
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Google Launches Rs 12 cr Hunt For
India’s Best Innovative Social Entrepreneurs
This is also part of Google’s ongoing giving efforts. Every year Google gives away approximately $100 million in grants, $1 billion in free and discounted apps
and ads, and 50,000 employee volunteer hours around the world. In 2012, Google launched the Global Impact Awards to support entrepreneurial non-profits
with a tech idea for how to change the world.
N
EW DELHI: Google has launched the
Google Impact Challenge in India,
asking Indian non-profits how they would
use technology to tackle problems in India
and around the world. The four submissions judged to be the best will each receive Rs 3 crores and technical assistance
from Google to help make their project a
reality.
“We are thrilled that the
Google Impact Challenge is
launching in India. It is a great
opportunity for Indian nonprofits to scale their efforts to
help solve some of our toughest problems. India already
has a rich tradition of corporate giving and hopefully the
Challenge will galvanize social
entrepreneurship in India.”
Rajan Anandan
Vice President and Managing
Director, Google India
On the eve of India’s independence, Google is celebrating the spirit of creativity, diversity and entrepreneurship that are the
hallmarks of the world’s largest democracy, by enabling the best local non-profits
that are using technology to make the
world better, faster.
Applications open today and Indian nonprofits are invited to apply online by September 5, 2013 at:g.co/indiachallenge.
A team from Google will review applications and announce 10 finalists on 21st
October. The public will then be invited to
learn more about the top 10 finalists and
cast a vote for their favourite projects. The
final event, to take place on October 31,
2013, will feature a judging panel including Google board member Ram Shriram;
Google’s Chief Business Officer, Nikesh
Arora; Jacquelline Fuller, Director, Google
Giving; Anu Aga, Social Worker and former Chairperson, Thermax and Jayant
Sinha, Managing Director, Omidyar Network India Advisors, who will select three
awardees. The fourth awardee, based on
online votes from the public, will also be
revealed.
In addition to backing Indian social innovators, Google wants to shine a spotlight
on the many Indian non-profits working
to help solve some of the world’s most
pressing challenges. This is Google’s first
Challenge in India and only its second
overall.
Google’s Global Impact Awards support
entrepreneurial non-profits using technology to tackle some of the world’s toughest
problems. Previous awardees have developed projects ranging from technology
that allowed under-privileged students
to access maths and science education to
real-time sensors that help ensure people
have better access to clean water.
“I have had the privilege of
working with budding inventors for many years, and
I know India’s entrepreneurs
are some of the biggest and
boldest thinkers in the world.
Today I’m thrilled to be part of
a new tech-oriented, venture
model that will support our
country’s amazing engine of
social entrepreneurs, identifying and backing the best technology ideas to improve the
lives of millions.”
Ram Shriram
Judge and Google
board member
CSR of Coal Companies, 80%
Budget to be Spent in Local Area
N
EW DELHI : The Department of Public Enterprises
erative Society, Infrastructure Support, Heritage sites
Minister further said that the Department of Public
(DPE), had framed the CSR guidelines, based on
in the CSR purview ensuring involvement of emEnterprises (DPE) had framed the CSR guidelines in
which, Coal India Ltd. (CIL) formulated a Corporate Soployee’s representatives in this Project, Empowerment
2010 and as per CSR policy, the budget allocation for
cial Responsibility (CSR) policy and provided funds to
of women for education, health & self-employment,
CSR increased tremendously. However, the CIL and
the tune of 5% of retained earnings of previous year
Adoption of village for carrying out the activities
its subsidiaries were not geared to utilize the funds
subject to minimum of Rs. 5 per tons of coal production
like infrastructural development e.g. road, water supwithin the financial year commensurate with higher
for subsidiaries & 2.5% for CIL. The criteria for spendply, electricity and community center etc. The details
allocation. Besides, the CSR projects are to be impleing funds under CSR. cover the economically backward
of amount utilized during last three years for the develmented by specialized agencies. In order to quantify
and needy section of the society living in different
opment of the surrounding villages by CIL & its subsidithe impact made by CSR activities, baseline data had
parts of India. For Carrying out CSR activities, 80% of
aries is given below.
to be compiled by conducting baseline survey before
the budgeted amount should be spent within the rastart of a project. The above formalities took time redius of 25 km of the projects or mines and 20%
sulting in slow utilization of funds. However, the
Company
2010-11
2011-12
2012-13
2013-14
(Up
to
of the budget would be spent on CSR activities
unutilized fund for 2011-12 was carried over to
June) (Fig in Rs.
within the State or States in which the Subsidithe next financial year. Further, CIL has taken
Crs.)
ary companies are operating. For CIL (HQ) CSR
measures to step up utilization of CSR funds
should be broadly executed in the areas, which
in the current year. A separate Cell in CIL, HQ.
ECL
04.74
13.14
09.42
0.35
are beyond the jurisdiction of subsidiary comas well as its subsidiaries has been established
BCCL
03.15
05.53
07.43
01.73
panies. This information was given by the Minisunder senior level executives of the Company.
CCL
10.98
11.00
13.66
02.08
ter of State for Coal, Pratik Prakash Bapu Patil in
For monitoring of CSR activities the Committee
WCL
07.12
07.85
20.96
02.33
a written reply in Lok Sabha on August 13, 2013.
comprising of Board Level Directors have been
formulated at CIL, H.Q and its subsidiaries sepaSECL
15.70
17.66
46.63
14.71
Minister said that as per CIL’s CSR policy, the narately. CIL has entered into a Memorandum of
MCL
53.45
14.47
25.56
17.19
ture of work on which CSR funds are being utiUnderstanding (MOU) with Tata Institute of Solized include Education, Water Supply including
NCL
04.35
09.25
17.64
03.84
cial Science (TISS), A National CSR Hub for exdrinking water, Health care by providing Indoor
CMPDIL
00.19
00.49
01.06
0.00
tending assistance in implementing CSR activimedical facilities and medicine, Sports and culCIL & NEC
08.71
02.59
07.19
53.13
ties for CIL and its subsidiaries.
ture, Social Empowerment, Infrastructure for
Total
108.42
82.00
149.55
95.36
Village Electricity, Solar Light, Pawan Chaki. Etc.,
Generation of employment & setting up Co-opCSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
Success Story
Vedanta has so far formed more than 1180 such Self-Help-Groups and the company is
further scaling up the project to bring in more rural and tribal women so that they can be
socio- economically empowered.
11
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Women Entrepreneurs of Rural India
Rural women out to make mark in Indian market with
their art and craft through Vedanta Self-Help-Groups
A tribal woman of Lanjigarh, Kada Majhi from village Kinari who has been trained by Vedanta in stitching and
tailoring sends her children to DAV Vedanta International School now. Vedanta also provided her a sewing machine and now she is able to earn about Rs. 2000 pm. In Lanjigarh area itself, 260 tribal women have been trained
in various skills.
‘‘
Women in rural and
tribal India live a life
that requires social and
economic upliftment.
As the women are core
of family system in India, it is important for
the rural society, like
in urban society, that
she should not only be
educated but also socially and economically
empowered.
‘‘
M
ost of these rural women were illiterate. Vedanta arranged their
adult-education classes in the villages to make them
capable of maintaining itinerary
of their own products. Initially,
Vedanta’s team helped them in
linkages but a situation has come
when these women have become
independent and they handle
their ledger book and accounts with
banks themselves. Shahnaz is one of
the 14,870 rural and tribal women
who have been able to support their
families by joining Vedanta’s SHGs.
A tribal woman of Lanjigarh, Kada Majhi from village Kinari who has been
trained by Vedanta in stitching and
tailoring sends her children to DAV
Vedanta International School now.
Vedanta also provided her a sewing
machine and now she is able to earn
about Rs.2000 pm. In Lanjigarh area
itself, 260 tribal women have been
trained in various skills.
Tamil Nadu is also not behind. Lalitha
from the state says, ‘I and my mother
and sister are members of Jasmine
self-help-group (SHG) and had interest in saree decoration skills, like
embroidery etc. and Vedanta besides providing training also linked
us with the local textile shops. Now,
we are able to earn about Rs. 4000 to
5000 pm. About 750 such women are
working in various Self-Help-Groups
formed by Vedanta Group company
MALCO in Tamil Nadu.
In Tuticorin where Vedanta has copper plant, Juliet Suganthi showed
interest in painting work. She joined
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
State
Rajasthan
Chhattisgarh
Odisha
Tamil Nadu
Goa
Zambia
Company
Hindustan Zinc
BALCO
Vedanta Aluminium Ltd
MALCO, Sterlite Copper
SESA Goa
Konkola Copper Mines
‘Nachithiram SHG’ and went for training in fashion jewellery. She now
makes chains, necklace, rings and
other items to sell in the market.
Similarly, Shanti Kanwar of Chhattisgarh is a member of ‘Sarvmangla
SHG’ formed by the group company
BALCO. Shanti has been linked with
rice milling and flour making unit.
Girja Saarthi, a member of ‘Mahamaya SHG’ is engaged in paper plate
making unit. Girja says, ‘we started
getting orders for our product from
the day we started operating the
unit. BALCO, besides forming our
group also gave us financial support
and helped us getting the orders.
Now, we are directly linked with market.’ Like Girja and Shanti, about 325
women are working in various SHGs
and earning about Rs. 5000 pm.
Not just in India, in the States of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu,
Goa and Orissa, Vedanta has organised Self-Help-Groups even in Zambia where the group has Konkola
Copper Mines.
A number of NGOs across India and
banks like HDFC, Indian Bank, Indian
Overseas Bank, State Bank of Bikaner
and Jaipur and State Bank of India
have come forward for providing fi-
nancial assistance to the members
of Self-Help-Groups.
Vedanta has so far formed more
than 1180 such Self-Help-Groups
and the company is further scaling
up the project to bring in more rural and tribal women so that they
can be socio- economically empowered. Today, these women are business women of rural India and are
out to make mark in Indian market
with their art & craft and their skills
in handicraft, embroidery, terracotta,
tailoring, saree decoration, jewelry
making, mushroom cultivation, poultry, goat husbandry, puffed rice processing, leaf plate-making, fish-farming, phenyl making, incense sticks/
agarbati making, beauty parlor, typing institute, gold covering, oil sales,
birds rearing, to name a few.
When Shahnaz Hussain lost her husband 15 years ago, her life had come
to a standstill. The thought of completing education of her 2 children
and sustaining respectable livelihood
almost dragged her into depression.
This simple house-hold woman of
village Bichhdi in Rajasthan had no
financial support and the future
looked uncertain. Speaking to fellow
women of her village, for her sustainable livelihood, she came in touch
with a Self-Help-Group ‘Jai Hind’ a
women empowerment project by Vedanta Group in rural India. Shahnaz
joined the group and was provided
stitching and tailoring training by Vedanta Group Company in Rajasthan,
Hindustan Zinc. Her determination to
get her children educated and have
a sustainable livelihood made her an
active member of the group.
Women in rural and tribal India live a
life that requires social and economic
upliftment. As the women are core of
family system in India, it is important
for the rural society, like in urban society, that she should not only be educated but also socially and economically empowered. With this thought,
Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Group started
Self-Help-Groups in rural India in
2006. Each Self-Help-Group needed
to have about 10-15 women who
would be provided relevant training
according to the needs and interest
and would be linked with market for
selling the products and also with
banks for financing the raw material.
“The larger challenge has been to convince the rural women to
spare time and join the groups. The rural system has its own challenges in terms of the social system. The support of family members for the women becomes the vital point. Vedanta group representatives need to convince not just the women in question but
also the family members and make them understand as how her
empowerment will bring prosperity to the entire family as well.
Once they came together, they started working like a strong team
where they extended helping hand to each other and ensured
their SHG comes out with best of products.”
Pavan Kaushik,
Head - Corporate Communication
Vedanta Group
Article
The purpose of the corporation must be redefined as creating shared value, not just profit
per se. This will drive the next wave of innovation and productivity growth in the global
economy. It will also reshape capitalism and its relationship to society.
12
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
The Corporate Paradigm Shift
for Creating Shared Values
By Akanksha Sharma
Capitalism is an unparalleled vehicle for meeting human needs, improving efficiency, creating jobs, and building wealth.
But a narrow conception of capitalism has prevented business from harnessing its full potential to meet society’s broader
challenges.
The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility has been debated for years. The general understanding of policy makers is that
every firm must ensure a balance between
business and society. With the increasing response of the shareholders towards the underlying business philosophy, Corporate Social Responsibility is today being considered
as the commitment of business to contribute to sustainable economic development,
working with employees, environmental responsibility, local community and society at
large to add value in all spheres of influence.
Over the years, the stakeholder engagement with the business and by the business
has grown substantially, making business to
effectively engage all significant groups of
stakeholders ensuring smooth business operations.
Moreover, changes in the global context
catalyzed the chain reaction for taking corporate responsibility to a new level. Moving
from the era of Milton
Friedman who has defined the subject as
Capitalism is an
“the social responsiof business is to
unparalleled vehicle bility
make profits”, to the
age where businesses
for meeting human
across the global are
professing organizaneeds, improving
tional culture develefficiency, creating
opment for creating
shared values, both
jobs, and building
businesses and the sowealth. But a narrow called concept of CSR
have witnessed evoconception of capilution hand-in-hand.
by merely
talism has prevented Precursored
profit-making
rapid
industrializationto
the
business from harstage of obtaining
nessing its full poten- the lisence to operate
charity to the
tial to meet society’s through
present times of corpoadvancement tobroader challenges. rate
wards creating shared
values, “CSR” has travelled through various
experimental stages of
evolution.
‘‘
‘‘
Moving Beyond Trade-Offs
Businesses and society have been pitted
against each other for too long. In this journey of responsible evolution of businesses,
various schools of thoughts have played
significant roles.Profit- centric group of
economists have legitimized the idea that
to provide societal benefits, companies
must temper their economic success. In
neoclassical thinking, a requirement for social improvement—such as safety or hiring
the disabled—imposes a constraint on the
corporation. Adding a constraint to a firm
that is already maximizing profits, says the
theory, will inevitably raise costs and reduce
those profits.
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
A related concept, with the same conclusion, is the notion of externalities. Externalities arise when firms create social costs that
they do not have to bear, such as pollution.
Thus, society must impose taxes, regulations, and penalties so that firms “internalize” these externalities—a belief influencing
many policy decisions.
This perspective has also shaped the strategies of firms themselves, which have
largely excluded social and environmental
considerations from their economic thinking. Firms have taken the broader context
in which they do business as a given and
resisted regulatory standards as invariably
contrary to their interests. Anything more is
often seen by many as an irresponsible use
of shareholders’ money.
Blurring the Profit/
Nonprofit Boundary
The concept of shared value, in contrast,
recognises that societal needs, not just conventional economic needs, define markets.
It also recognizes that social harms or weaknesses frequently create internal costs for
firms—such as wasted energy or raw materials, costly accidents, and the need for
remedial training to compensate for inadequacies in education. And addressing societal harms and constraints does not necessarily raise costs for firms, because they can
innovate through using new technologies,
operating methods, and management approaches—and as a result, increase their
productivity and expand their markets.
Creating Shared Values
The corporate pandits have defined the
concept of Creating Shared Values in varied
forms but the most preferred definition lies
in developing a system of inclusive business
models.
A growing number of companies known
for their hard-nosed approach to business
have already embarked on important efforts to create shared value by reconceiving the intersection between society and
corporate performance. Yet our recognition
of the transformative power of shared value
is still in its genesis. Realizing it will require
leaders and managers to develop new skills
and knowledge—such as a far deeper appreciation of societal needs, a greater understanding of the true bases of company
productivity, and the ability to collaborate
across profit/nonprofit boundaries. And
government must learn how to regulate in
ways that enable shared value rather than
work against it.
Capitalism is an unparalleled vehicle for
meeting human needs, improving efficiency, creating jobs, and building wealth. But
a narrow conception of capitalism has prevented business from harnessing its full potential to meet society’s broader challenges.
The moment for a new conception of capitalism is now; society’s needs are large and
growing, while customers, employees, and a
new generation of young people are asking
business to step up.
The purpose of the corporation must be
redefined as creating shared value, not just
profit per se. This will drive the next wave of
innovation and productivity growth in the
global economy. It will also reshape capitalism and its relationship to society. Perhaps
most important of all, learning how to create shared value is our best chance to legitimize business again.
The Evolving
Corporate Behavior
Corporates all over the globe are gradually
evolving from the typical mindset of doing
mere philanthropy on the name of CSR to
the value added approach of have programmatic outlook towards the business case of
CSR. This approach endeavors to create values shared by not only business and business associates but also by the society at
large.
Besides this, the increasing trend of Advertising CSR amongst stakeholders is a true
catalyst for the evolving corporate behavior
towards CSR. Now, companies do not want
to show case the ‘good work they do’ as an
extended responsibility towards society but
understanding the stakeholder expectations CSR is now advertised as a pure case of
‘Shared Value Proposition’. The recent development at the government front has further
added fuel to this trend.
The Ripple Effect
towards Inclusive Growth
More and more companies are now evolving from the narrow view of value creation
and are taking the lead in bringing business
and society back together. The recognition
is there among sophisticated business and
thought leaders, and promising elements of
a new model are emerging. Yet we still lack
an overall framework for guiding these efforts, and most companies remain stuck in
a “social responsibility” mind-set in which
societal issues are at the periphery, not the
core.
The solution lies in the principle of shared
value, which involves creating economic
value in a way that also creates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges.
Businesses must reconnect company success with social progress. Shared value is not
social responsibility, philanthropy, or even
sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success and inclusive growth.
Akanksha Sharma is the Manager- CSR &
Sustainability at Jubilant FoodWorks Limited.
Article
If you plan to develop a purpose-driven social brand and do a lot of cause-marketing, then
develop a policy which deals with many of the above issues.
13
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Cause-Related Marketing:
The Right Direction ?
By Monaem Ben Lellahom
Monaem Ben Lellahom is a pioneer and thought leader in Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (CSR) practices in the Arab region. Monaem is co-founder and Head of Sustainability consultancy services at Sustainable
Square Consultancy and Think Tank. He was the first Social Return on Investment (SROI) practitioner in the Arab
world to master social impact measurement and has authored research reports to demonstrate the social value
of community development work through SROI analysis. Monaem also focuses on developing sustainability
strategies for organizations across various industries, conducting gap analysis and studying Socio-economic
(SEIA) progress in various issues. He has extensive knowledge of Sustainable Value Chains and Product Transparency, and the linkages between Sustainability and Branding.
I
n their ever increasing need to differentiate themselves, many companies are turning to the use of causerelated marketing. Decades ago, if
you dropped the phrase “cause-related
marketing” in the meeting room, your
colleagues would most likely return an
empty stare.
Historically, “Marketing 1.0” was a productfocused
enterprise
born of the Industrial
Peter Duckers Once
Revolution, and “Marketing 2.0” was a cussaid, “profit is not
tomer-focused effort
leveraging
insights
the purpose of a
gained from informabusiness but rather
tion technology, and
now with “Marketing
the test of its valid3.0”, Philip Kotler came
ity.” I will take that a
to confirm that marlatest incarstep further: The real keting’s
nation must engage
indicator of measurpeople in ways that
provide “solutions to
ing the success of
their anxieties to make
the globalized world a
a sales force is not
better place”. It is a givmaking profit. It is
en fact that consumers believe companies
the test of its added
have obligations bevalue and effectiveyond making money
their owners. In
ness to the customer. for
fact, it is getting more
difficult for a company
to connect with customers and prosper if
it does not stand for something more
than its financial bottom line.
‘‘
‘‘
Consumers Prefer Causes
The 2013 Cone Global Cause Evaluation Survey shows that 55% of surveyed customers
have boycotted a company because of irresponsible business practices. 53% would
NOT invest in a company that does not actively support a good cause.
When choosing between two companies
with similar products that engaged in cause
marketing, 70% of those surveyed cited
“personal relevance of cause” as the reason
they chose one company over another. On
another note, 76% think it is ok for brands
to support good causes and make money at
the same time.
According to a new research presented at
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
the World Federation of Advertisers’ annual
conference in Brussels, global marketers surveyed overwhelmingly said that CSR will be
increasingly important in building brands in
the future, with 88% agreeing with that statement. However, only 46% of those marketers
thought that consumers share and approve
their support for good causes. When in fact
60% of consumers surveyed claimed to be
looking for brands with a sense of purpose.
Companies are asking the following questions every day: Should we stand for a purpose or continue doing traditional marketing? How do we optimize our purpose-driven
marketing investments? Can being socially
responsible be used as a messaging strategy
in our marketing campaigns to help increase
revenue?
American Express Starts a
Trend
The concept of cause-related marketing was
first introduced in 1983 by American Express
to describe its campaign to raise money for
the Statue of Liberty’s restoration. American
Express donated one cent to the restoration
every time someone used its charge card.
As a result, the number of new cardholders
grew by 45%, and card usage increased by
28%. Nowadays, there is an increasing number of companies introducing marketing
activities involving corporate efforts of business and non-profit organizations for mutual benefit. The market is seeing a flooding
number of new collaborations between corporates and NGOs in which their respective
assets are combined to create shareholder
and social value.
Businesses and Nonprofits
Must Align Their Stories
If you have ever purchased a product or service and felt good about it because it had
a little pink ribbon or a sustainability label
on it, you have likely been a consumer of a
cause marketing campaign. We have totally
changed the way we live our commercial
lives; we now invest more of our minds,
hearts and spirits. We keep searching for solutions that bring value to us and let us feel
that we have a purpose in life. “Marketing 3.0
will be won by those who become purposedriven social brands” explains Philip Kotler
in Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit, and to do so, businesses and non-profits must align to bring a
cohesive brand story to life. Companies are
increasingly turning to purpose-driven marketing with the hope of cultivating loyalty
among their key customers. Sure, consumers are happy to help save the world and
be more responsible. But they must first see
the benefit to their own households. When
going through the process of developing
purpose-driven social brands, companies
have to make sure that there is a win-win situation between customers and the charity.
This is achieved when customers feel their
livesare enhanced by the charity efforts and
that good feeling is transferred to how they
feel about the market.
Cause Marketing: The Right
Direction?
Despite compelling data however, lots of
businesses are still indecisive on whether it
is the right direction to take and whether is
it the right time to start investing. “As marketers, we spend billions of dollars each year
trying to understand consumers all over
the world. Unfortunately, it is harder and
harder” Edward Martin, Director Marketing
Excellence and CSR Insights at The Hershey
Company. Therefore, it is time to understand
that only a minority of customers take time
to answer marketing surveys and ads. However, customers are more willing to engage
with companies on social causes and environmental issues. It is not a good way to get
into the customers’ minds? Try it once and
you will see the immediate result.
Peter Ducker once said, “Profit is not the
purpose of a business but rather the test
of its validity.” I will take that a step further:
The real indicator of measuring the success
of a sales force is not making profit. It is the
test of its added value and effectiveness to
the customer. We need to step back from
our conventional practices and take a larger
view of what connects us to build deeper
bases for purpose-driven engagement.
However, in order for these efforts to be effective, customers must feel that your efforts
are authentic and truly supporting a cause.
Businesses have to be transparent about
how they are distributing funds to the cause
and clearly outline the win-win solution the
product or the campaign is preaching for. If
you plan to develop a purpose-driven social
brand and do a lot of cause-marketing, then
develop a policy which deals with many of
the above issues.
Article
For most organisations, the cost of reporting in accordance with GRI will go up in the
short term, but will decrease over the long run because the new Materiality focus will lead
to more effective reporting and better return on investment for organisations who take
the time to do it properly.
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
14
GRI G4 – Is it worth it?
By Dwayne Baraka
Dwayne Baraka is a speaker, trainer and consultant in CSR and is expert in of corporate strategy. Mr Baraka’s background in corporate law has given him a solid understanding of the influence that corporations have on society
and his experience as Director at Business in the Community means his insights are grounded in practical implementation. His consultancy, valueCSR, has a burning focus on the business case for CSR.
T
he G4 will be a challenge for
many companies, but the challenges will bring a number of benefits: better embedded CSR, more
engaging CSR reports and better returns from CSR investments.
In reviewing the latest version of the
Global Reporting Initiative ( GRI),
three important criteria stand out as
competing for the attention of CSR
pundits, investors and others who
care about CSR: Transparency, Comparability and Materiality.
Transparency
‘‘
Big companies
have relied on
GRI’s Reporting
Standard to guide
them when writing
CSR reports. The
latest version, G4,
will change the reporting game and
make companies
more aware of the
commercial benefits of CSR.
Increased transparency means
greater trust from readers of CSR
reports. Previous versions of the
GRI has increased trust in business
through clearer reporting of issues
that concern many stakeholders. But
transparency doesn’t always mean
that the most important issues are
dealt with.
For many NGOs and other interested
society groups, the G4 reaches a lot
further into supply chains and levels of remuneration, and that seems
likely to be welcomed. However, the
G4 is likely to result in most companies reporting on a smaller number
of issues, which may frustrate some.
Comparability
Making reliable judgments on CSR
information published is easier if
reports are comparable. The common set of GRI metrics means that
information is often directly comparable between companies. The GRI
has thus far helped them by giving a
relatively ubiquitous framework.
The G4, in allowing companies to
generally report on less metrics, will
mean a decrease in comparability of
CSR reports.
‘‘
Materiality
Materiality is the degree to which
the issues covered by a company are
the most important ones. The GRI
has probably muddied materiality
waters until now.
The G4 has significantly increased
focus on materiality and especially
on companies reporting how they
derive their most important issues.
Transparency, Comparability, Materiality – FIGHT!
Each of the three areas are inherently in conflict with each other. A focus
on Materiality will decrease comparability because it will reduce the
number of metrics common across
all companies. It also has potential
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
for reduction of overall transparency
and comparability, because ‘nonmaterial’ issues might not be included in a report. The SRI community is
desperately trying to connect CSR to
corporate performance and presumably welcome the help they will get
in identifying the most important
CSR issues for companies.
Companies have long argued that
Transparency is all well and good,
but that GRI compliance causes
them to waste resources on issues
that didn’t really matter. Conversely,
many NGOs have argued that GRI
compliance doesn’t go far enough
– they want more information and
further into the supply chain than
GRI had previously delivered. As a
general rule, transparency will not
be useful for materiality, but will often increase comparability.
An increase in Comparability generally increases transparency, but may
reduce the effectiveness of identifying the most material issues. Comparability requires an exhaustive list
of metrics or clear consensus for all
concerned about what the comparable issues should be. Little consensus of that type exists, although GRI
and SASB are trying to achieve sector specific metrics.
G4’s focus on materiality will result
in longer discussion of issues that
matter the most. That will use more
resources, but deliver higher quality
outcomes. The return on resources
invested in the G4 will deliver different result to different organisations.
Simple Organisations
For simple organisations, the G4 will
probably result in shorter reports
with a clearer focus. CSR Reports will
reach deeper into the most important issues through the greater focus
on impact and consequent reach
into supply chains.
Complex Organisations
For complex organisations, we will
probably see longer reports, because they will need to discuss materiality on a strategic-unit basis,
which may mean different issues
need to be addressed based on variation in business model, customer
base and operational strategy. For
some organisations, they will need
to have multiple discussions of the
same issue because of the different
operational contexts.
Controversial Organisations
For organisations which have controversial or significantly detrimental
impacts on society, they will prob-
ably suffer the worst of both worlds;
having to fully disclose all GRI metrics (due to expectations of certain
stakeholders) and identify their most
material impacts. Those organisations are likely to bemoan the GRI
changes because they will need to
greatly increase the resources needed to meet their social expectations
and conform to the highest GRI and
disclosure standards.
Conclusions
The focus on Materiality is a very
good way to make the GRI relevant
for the mid-term. It gives organisations the chance and an excuse to revise their views on CSR and to work
out more specifically what the arguments are for and against particular
CSR measures. It is also likely to result in more focus on performance
targets and greater measurability.
Many organisations have underachieved on those and I think the G4
will be a much needed shot in the
arm.
It also increases the transparency of
the most material issues, which has
potential to bring the SRI and broader investment communities closer to
business. It will also mean that more
companies will talk about the financial return of CSR initiatives, just like
they do in relation to other parts of
their business. As a result, CSR programmes will be better embedded
and drive a new round of value creation from CSR- thinking.
For most organisations, the cost of
reporting in accordance with GRI
will go up in the short term, but
will decrease over the long run because the new Materiality focus will
lead to more effective reporting
and better return on investment
for organisations who take the time
to do it properly. For organisations
who try to fake the Materiality stuff
(and there will be more than a few
of those), they are probably in for a
long-term increase in costs and run
the risk of being targeted for lack of
transparency and honesty and also
of disenfranchising investors in the
medium term.
In summary, the G4 will be easy for
companies that have taken integrating CSR into their business seriously
(or who will do so now) but will increase overall costs for not much
benefit for companies that don’t.
Dwayne Baraka blogs at
www.dwaynebaraka.com/blog,
where this article was first published.
E-mail - dwayne.baraka@yahoo.co.uk
Article
The government responded with pleas to companies to maintain Bangladesh as their
playground even as it did nothing to address factory safety or land supply for the garment
sector in the 2013-14 budget.
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
15
Bangladesh – The Difference
Between Policy and Action
By Radhika Mehrotra
Radhika Mehrotra : As an Analyst- Stakeholder Engagement at Solaron Sustainability Services Pvt. Ltd. since October 2012, Radhika Mehrotra is responsible for incorporating Solaron’s proprietary ‘stakeholder engagement’
component of company research and rating services in Emerging Markets. A post graduate from the esteemed
Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India, Radhika started out as a Research Intern at ATLMRI Research
and Policy Advocacy Programme, Mumbai. She has also worked as a Product Head at the Centre for Monitoring
Indian Economy (CMIE), Mumbai. She was instrumental in spearheading research and analysis for two of CMIE’s
flagship databases.
T
‘‘
On 24 April 2013, an
eight-story commercial building, Rana
Plaza, collapsed in
Savar, a sub-district
in the Greater Dhaka
Area, the capital of
Bangladesh. The
search for the dead
ended on 13 May
with the death toll
of 1,129. Approximately 2,500 injured
people were rescued
from the building
alive. Bangladesh is
the second largest
garment exporter
of the world after
China, controlling
about 20 per cent of
the total US apparel
import with a dramatic share increase
in the recent years.
here has been enough and more
said on the Rana Plaza collapse
and the absence of a regulatory framework, poor corporate monitoring of large supply chains,
cheap labor and the ensuing price wars
between countries, contractors and laborers; and of course consumer activism. While all of these are valid causal
factors, none are revelations. What
stands apart this time, is that while accountability was accepted rather grudgingly by a majority of the global retailers found churning out the latest trends
from the debris of the Rana Plaza, most
wax eloquent about their sustainable
endeavors in consistent annual reports.
The natural consequence is a compromise on worker safety. Data provided
by the International Labor Rights Forum
confirms this with 1,800 worker fatalities recorded since 2005, all attributed
to factory collapses and fires. The culmination of this deep negligence was the
Rana Plaza collapse in April 2013 where
obvious structural faults were ignored
so that daily production targets were
uncompromised.
The government responded with pleas
to companies to maintain Bangladesh
as their playground even as it did nothing to address factory safety or land supply for the garment sector in the 201314 budget. Meanwhile, the Bangladesh
Garment Manufacturers & Exporters
Association has stated over other things
a rise in cost of production (mainly due
to exchange rate fluctuations) that has
marginalized incomes and logically led
to a fall in compliance related spending.
Companies like Disney, Levi Strauss and
Target are seeking to withdraw licenses
while some are making amends.
PVH Corp and German retailer Tchibo
have signed a binding agreement to ban
sub-contracting at high risk facilities, finance renovations & fire safety training
and make audit results available to the
public. The much delayed Accord on Fire
& Building safety has been signed by 40
major retailers and may finally see the
light of day. Clearly, the onus of dignity
& safety of Bangladeshi labor rests on
the responsible business practices of
companies.
‘‘
An analysis of H&M and Walmart, the
largest buyers of garments manufactured in Bangladesh, reveals gaps in implementation and the liberty to default
on commitments in a weak regulatory
environment. H&M–With a presence in
43 countries, H&M has multiple sustainCSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
ability commitments including organic
raw materials, stringent targets on water consumption and model factories in
Bangladesh. For its 785 suppliers, H&M
monitors factory compliance, provides
training for suppliers & their workers
and promotes social dialogue through
multiple associations such as Better
Work, the Fair Labor Association and the
Fair Wage Network.
The company acknowledges second
and third tier sub-contracting and states
that its 148 ‘strategic partners’ who account for 53% of production, can own
and subcontract work to multiple factories. The company has successfully
conducted 2,646 audits till date for all its
suppliers. Additionally, with a focus on
Bangladesh, the company has provided
more than 100,000 workers and middle
managers with training in fire and safety. Supplier factories are required to conduct electrical assessment as well, with
costs shared by the company.
Overall, the company states a collaborative and exhaustive system to ensure
sustainability in its supply chain. However, the scope of these exercises is limited to first-tier suppliers. Only 58 audits
covered second-tier suppliers.
Similarly, only 30 of 747 head audits and
28 of 1,779 follow up audits checked on
second-tier suppliers. In Bangladesh, a
majority of the 5,400 factories are second and third tier suppliers. Implementation is negated by ground experiences
as well.
In March 2010, structural faults led to a
fire and 21 fatalities at the Garib & Garib factory. The company had reported
compliance with its ‘Code of Conduct’
and health & safety audits conducted
five months prior concluded no serious
drawbacks. Similar discrepancies in audit results and actualities emerged recently.
A factory owner in Ashulia who supplies
exclusively to H&M stressed on complete compliance with fire and safety
requirements, even as all fire exits were
bolted shut. In May 2013, the company
reconfirmed a satisfactory health & safety audit for the unit.
Unfortunately for H&M, its operations in
Cambodia followed suit. A factory collapse in May had the company absolve
itself of responsibility citing unapproved
sub-supplier linkages; surprising, since
Cambodian workers have been striking
since 2012 against inadequate wages
and poor conditions of work.
Wal-Mart- As the common link between
the Tazreen Factory fire in November
2012 and the Rana Plaza collapse in
April 2013, Walmart can no longer avoid
addressing its health & safety norms. In
both cases, the company was found to
be operating from grossly unsafe factories. In both cases, the company has distanced itself from suppliers, citing the
much abused complex subcontracting
web. It continues to make its supplier
policy more stringent – with limited action on its part. Walmart’s response to
the two accidents directs accountability
to the suppliers. From three chances earlier, suppliers will now face a ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy regarding undisclosed subcontracting. Statements from Walmart’s
management circulating in media
sources make the company sound like
a victim of shoddy suppliers as opposed
to an active stakeholder. Rajan Kamalanathan, Walmart’s vice president of ethical sourcing stated “We want the right
accountability and ownership to be in
the hands of the suppliers” and that “We
are placing our orders in good faith.”
The company on its part failed to sign up
to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety. A shareholder proposal by a former
Bangladeshi factory worker to comply
with the Accord and ensure more transparent and timely action for its supply
chain was voted down by the Board in
June 2013.
Serious gaps mark the company’s performance as well. The Tazreen Factory
was audited in May 2011 with ‘higher
risk violations’ even as media reports
point out that five licensers continued to
source work to Tazreen in 2012. The Ethical Sourcing Program document dated
January 2012 has detailed guidelines
that enable factories to comply with environmental and social sourcing. Among
other things, it directs suppliers to disclose all factories and sub-contractors
involved in the manufacturing process.
Walmart then determines the scope and
nature of audits. Costs are to be borne
by suppliers, placing the financial and
execution liability of sustainability on its
suppliers. Further, Walmart’s disclosure
processes are carried out on-line, guaranteeing global access but not guaranteeing coverage in poverty-ridden
Bangladesh with internet access limited
to only 3.5% of the population.
Interview
16
The biggest drawback of our sector is the lack of regulation and organization. We work
in an imperfect environment. Though the things are changing now but it will take some
more time for them to be in perfect state.
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Education is the Key to
Lead a Dignified Life
By Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder & Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation
In an exclusive interview with CSR & COMPETITIVENESS , Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder Executive Trustee,
Smile Foundation shared about his work and passion towards Social Venture Philanthropy (SVP) model.
Smile Foundation works on the subjects of education, healthcare, livelihood and women empowerment
through 158 projects operational across 25 states in India. Through the SVP model, Smile Foundation
makes an effort to broad base investment in order to maximize its reach and optimize returns by approaching and strengthening a large number of like-minded individuals and organizations globally.
The realization of a group of young corporate professionals, that it was their Social Responsibility to give
back to the society, laid the foundation of Smile. In the
early 90’s when liberalization happened, we were the
first ones to get the fruit of success beyond expectation. My needs were limited. The very thought of doing
something beyond just professional gain haunted me
always. I brought in a group of likeminded friends to
start discussing what and how to do something which
can impact maximum lives with our limited understanding and resources.
What are the various social projects initiated by Smile Foundation in India?
Since 2002 Smile Foundation has been working on the
subjects of education for children, livelihood for the
youth, healthcare in rural villages and urban slums,
women empowerment and sensitization of the privileged masses through programmes- Mission Education- the education programme for underprivileged
children, Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP) –
the livelihood programme for underprivileged youth,
SWABHIMAN- a Programme on girl child & women empowerment and Smile on Wheels (SoW) – innovative
mobile hospital programme.
How the project is serving the community?
Smile Foundation believes that education is the key
to lead a dignified life. It enables an individual to become conscious about his rights, enables him to make
informed choices. When we talk about empowerment
it starts with education.
In our child education programme ‘Mission Education’
we focus on bringing the children to the remedial and
bridge course centres, provide them an enjoyable and
effective learning, avail them with basic healthcare
and also nutrition. Most of the children come from
parents who have never been to school. Hence the basic awareness about the need to go to school is missing. Secondly, they cannot take the first step towards
school. So we need to sensitize and mobilize the whole
communities for sending their non-school going children to our centres. Then comes making the children
continue studying in the centres, learn effectively and
then mainstreaming them into government and public schools. Today many of our children are studying in
reputed schools across India.
What do you think of India govt emphasis
on child education and rights?
Government no doubt is doing its best but everything
cannot be left on laws and government alone. India is a
big country with different demographics. Government
can make laws and bring acts like RTE but taking them
to people cannot be done by government alone.
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
Right To Education (RTE) has provisions which can help
in getting more and more children to school. But there
is a major gap of awareness and enactment in terms
of RTE. A majority of underprivileged population does
not even know that there is something like RTE for
them. For this civil society needs to be active to spread
the reach and awareness of acts like RTE. The privileged
section of our society should be proactive everything
cannot be left on law or government alone.
The Smile Foundation calls itself a ‘Social
Venture Philanthropist’ (SVP). Could you
please elaborate a bit on that?
Social Venture philanthropy is one of the working
model of Smile Foundation. It is based on the model of
venture capital. Under the Social Venture Philanthropy
(SVP) model, Smile Foundation identifies handholds
and builds capacities of genuine grassroots NGOs to
achieve accountability, sustainability, scalability, leadership. Through the SVP model, Smile Foundation
makes an effort to broad base investment in order to
maximize its reach and optimize returns by approaching and strengthening a large number of like-minded
individuals and organizations globally.
What is the motivation behind producing child feature film “I am Kalam”. Kindly
Share the achievement of the film.
‘I am Kalam’, was an astounding success with the film
travelling to over 30 countries and winning 22 national and international awards. With “I am Kalam” Smile
Foundation advocated the cause of Sending Every
Child to School. The story of a child daring to dream
and surpassing the boundaries of reality won not
just awards but accolades from the general audience
across the world. With ‘I am Kalam’ we had stepped into
the film genre. It sensitizes the civil society towards the
plight of poor and their importance in helping them to
lead a better life.
What are your future plans for the year
2013?
My future vision is to bring good and sustainable
changes in lives of as many people as possible. Smile
Foundation would like to develop and promote good
governance in the sector more intensely in near future.
Application of technology in achieving efficiency and
cutting cost would another area we are already working and it would be developed further. Thirdly, sharing
the learning and knowledge in real time with similar
development organisations both in India and in similar countries internationally would be something we
would like to pursue further. Making the civil society
members as partners in change in every developmental initiative locally is another future objective.
What kind of challenges you are facing to
implement to social projects?
In development sector, input is not always equal to the
output. There are so many subjective processes and
outputs which one needs to understand and appreciate.
The biggest drawback of our sector is the lack of regulation and organization. We work in an imperfect environment. Though the things are changing now but
it will take some more time for them to be in perfect
state. In our country giving culture is not so inclined
towards development work. So aligning people with
resources and the needs have always been a challenge
since the inception. This sector had been struggling
with trust deficiency so changing the perception of
people is another major task which we face.
How do you measure Social Impact of the
projects implemented?
Smile Foundation always believes in and follows good
governance. We monitor our work both internally and
externally. Internally we have an in bill process and a
review is done on monthly, quarterly and annually basis. Smile also engages external evaluators to understand, evaluate our programmes, methodology and
the impact of our work. We not only get the evaluation
done for our work internally and externally but also do
course corrections and improvements in order to reach
out to as many people as possible in a better way.
‘‘
Social Venture philanthropy is one of the working model of Smile Foundation. It is based on the
model of venture capital.
Under the Social Venture Philanthropy (SVP)
model, Smile Foundation
identifies handholds and
builds capacities of genuine grassroots NGOs to
achieve accountability,
sustainability, scalability,
leadership.
‘‘
Brief us about the historical background of
Smile Foundation and its mission.
Article
The potential for big businesses to engage in the social delivery sector via social enterprises opens a huge opportunity for such businesses.
17
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Innovation as Corporate
Social Responsibility
By Shailaja D Sharma
‘‘
The focus on innovation –
via social enterprise and via
technology incubation – in the
Companies Bill is not a chance
event. If businesses take this
opportunity to switch their
CSR focus from transactional
and PR-led activities to strategic, risk-alleviating and
option-generating activities,
this would lead to the flow
of a substantial and muchneeded fund into areas that
will increasingly be critical for
business sustainability.
‘‘
C
SR or Corporate Social Responsibility has been practised for many reasons and does not necessarily provide
benefits to society, or in fact even to
the company. Money spent on various
causes may well have been deemed to
have ‘gone down the drain’ – the actions funded often having but a transient presence in the targeted audiences’ consciousness and in the world.
Internationally, the debate has moved
from whether companies should undertake CSR to what they should do
by way of addressing the need for
business sustainability. In this context,
CSR is thus perceived more as an act of
self-preservation than of charity, and
is focused on regulatory compliance
– on environmental compliance, occupational health and safety standards,
business ethics and corporate governance – on the one hand, and active risk
management via stakeholder engagement on the other.
In India, government has made it clear
that it expects that all large companies
will undertake activities that can be
classified as CSR. In other words, government is making it mandatory for
companies to pick up a part of the developmental burden, especially while
businesses experience growth and
economic expansion. While this government fiat has mixed implications,
the main negative implication being
the undermining of the voluntary,
unilateral and business-determined
character of CSR, there are also some
interesting and positive fall-outs. The
main positive result is that companies
are being gently nudged and prodded
to take a serious look at (among others)
innovation – as a business responsibility.
Formulating CSR objectives in line
with national development goals helps
channelize otherwise sub-optimal
resource-flows into defined domains
of national importance. Government
has included traditional activities such
as health and education in the ambit
of CSR, allowing companies to continue to perform charitable works in
these areas, and claim the benefits of
being CSR-compliant. However, by inCSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
The potential for big businesses to engage in the social
delivery sector via social enterprises opens a huge opportunity for such businesses. It will then be necessary
for companies to identify the right sort of partnerships
and platforms, whereby the opportunity can be best
exploited in the interests of sustainable development.
cluding items such as social enterprise
and technology incubation in the ambit of CSR, government has definitely
opened an important new channel to
tap these funds. Government is urging lethargic businesses to focus their
attention on these two areas – which
can be developed only by business
enterprises. By definition, social enterprises target important developmental
objectives, but carry high risks as businesses, because they serve people with
lower paying capacity and are often
based on untested business models.
Often they are experimental in nature,
small in scale and undertaken by individuals with an idea but little else. In
India, social enterprises have taken up
all kinds of causes, from garbage segregation and recycling, to health services and skill-building, IT services and
renewable energy.
Social enterprises routinely describe
shortages of operating cash and distributor and warehousing networks,
lack of brand-image, inability to raise
loans for their customers, and lack of
business and marketing know-how
as inhibitors of growth. Their last-mile
focus is at odds with their scale-up
aspirations. These are areas where association and partnership with large
companies can be beneficial.
Large businesses on the other hand
increasingly recognise the rural sector and social enterprise as a source of
sustainable businesses and business
models. They would like to be involved,
but do not wish to invest heavily – both
in terms of resources and shareholder
attention. Incidentally, these concerns
are also true of other types of CSR activities, except those which directly
address the firm’s business risks. Allow-
ing companies to fulfil their CSR obligations by investing and supporting
these enterprises offers a tremendous
opportunity for expansion of these social enterprises and their impact and
for firms to legitimately direct some of
their time and resources towards this
important sector.
The potential for big businesses to engage in the social delivery sector via
social enterprises opens a huge opportunity for such businesses. It will then
be necessary for companies to identify
the right sort of partnerships and platforms, whereby the opportunity can
be best exploited in the interests of
sustainable development. Thus the opportunity comes with a suitable challenge. Business organisations shaping
the sustainability agenda can play an
important role in this regard.
Government has also indicated that
investments in recognised technology incubators will be considered as
execution of CSR. Engagement of the
business sector in technology development has lagged in India, making
us severely dependent on ideas and
technologies and indeed products
fashioned abroad. The underlying assumptions about the availability of energy and resources including materials,
land, water and labour, and about the
end-uses would be different when a
product is conceptualised and built in
industrialised societies, versus if it were
to be conceptualised and developed
from the start in India. Already certain
large Indian companies are staking
their claim in the innovation space –
but it will be when there is fierce competition in this space -- and when that
space becomes truly inclusive – that
we will see real innovation. It is there-
fore heartening that the Companies
Bill encourages companies to channel their CSR spends into this domain,
rather than pour it down the drain.
A sustainability challenge that cannot
be met purely by market forces with
or without regulatory support is the
cleantech sector, as also BOP (bottomof-pyramid) energy services. Another
area that could do with infusion of
additional funds and corporate attention is that of indigenous products and
services –e.g. indigenous architecture,
using locally available materials and
resources. Innovation is multiplied by
inclusion. Thus the provision of suitable rural/urban youth exchange programmes and apprenticeships – is an
area of great potential. Experimenting with new developmental concepts
such as community-based sustainability standards – would be another
interesting area for corporates who
wish to have a window on the future.
Channeling CSR funds towards a set of
such activities would be to truly fulfill
the national and developmental vision expressed in the provisions of the
Companies Bill, while steering businesses into strategic and forward looking pathways.
In sum, everywhere in the globe, CSR
or more generally business responsibility has been recognised as being closely linked to addressing social
needs sustain ably. Without innovation, businesses cannot hope to be
sustainable. The focus on innovation
– via social enterprise and via technology incubation – in the Companies Bill
is not a chance event. If businesses take
this opportunity to switch their CSR
focus from transactional and PR-led
activities to strategic, risk-alleviating
and option-generating activities, this
would lead to the flow of a substantial
and much-needed fund into areas that
will increasingly be critical for business
sustainability.
Shailaja D Sharma is a sustainability
specialist and an independent business and development consultant.
Social Innovation
The purpose of the corporation must be redefined as creating shared value, not just profit
per se. This will drive the next wave of innovation and productivity growth in the global
economy. It will also reshape capitalism and its relationship to society.
18
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Mahindru Foundation – Lighting up
Lives of Visually Impaired
With the vision of working towards total eradication of corneal blindness from the country, the Gurgaon-based NGO – Y.P. Mahindru Niramaya Eye Bank, under
Ashok Mahindru, has crossed the milestone of 1000 eye donations in 2012.
A
“We Plan to Open 50
Eye Banks all over India
to ensure that corneal
blindness is completely
wiped out from India.”
Ashok Mahindru
Chairman,
Mahindru Foundation
journey that began almost a decade back has lit up lives of thousands suffering from corneal
blindness. In the year 2005, Y.P. Mahindru
Niramaya Eye Bank and Cornea Transplant unit was set up at the Niramaya
Charitable Trust, an NGO founded and
run by a team of professionals. In 2004,
Late Shri Yashpal Mahindru along with his
son Ashok Mahindru guided a group of
motivated professionals with experience
in health and eye care to set up North
India’s first and largest private Eye bank
with a mission to provide ‘Quality Health
Care to the Rural and Urban Poor”. It is the
only government approved Eye Bank in
South Haryana which is registered with
Eye Bank Association of India. It follows
standard world class procedures and is
equipped with latest technology.
these corneas have been transplanted
by AIIMS, Delhi and PGIMS, Rohtak (Haryana) through an ongoing collaboration.
Y.P.Mahindru Niramaya Eye Bank Chairman, Ashok Mahindru, says, “India is
home to world’s largest visually impaired
population. Around 1,20,00,000 people are suffering from some kind of eye
problem. 80 % of them are suffering from
cataract or refractive errors which are curable through a normal medical process.”
“Remaining 2.1 million people are suffering from acute corneal blindness that can
only be eradicated through transplantation of corneas from eye donor, which
must be carried out within about 6 hours
before one breaths his/her last,” added
Mahindru.
On the occasion of their 1000th successful eye donation program, Ashok Mahindru said, “The journey has not stopped
here, rather it has just begun and I will
urge my fellow citizens to enlighten
someone’s world by donating your eyes.”
Underlining the problem with regards to
lack of eye donations, Ashok Mahindru
said, average number of eye donations
in India languishes at about 38,600 per
annum implying that even an impossible wait of 112 years will not help most.
On the other hand approximately 9 million people die every year and one pair
of eyes from a deceased person can be
implanted on two blind persons implying a potential of 1 Crore 80 Lakh corneal
transplants.”
ized free eye surgery/care camps for the
under privileged. Ashok Mahindru has
been taking forward his father’s vision by
expanding the footprint through Run for
Vision Foundation.
Founder of the Eye Bank, Late Shri
Y.P.Mahindru, father of Ashok Mahindru,
was a visionary philanthropist who believed that one gets deep inner satisfaction and happiness when one gets physically involved in philanthropy. Late Shri
Mahindru had worked for health care for
over 6 decades and had regularly organ-
Ashok Mahindru leads these initiatives
under the Mahindru Foundation (earlier known as Mahindru Charitable Trust)
and provides financial support to various
NGOs in eye care. The Trust is dedicated
to enlarge the footprint of awareness
campaigns for eye donation. The Foundation has been laid and now the plan is to
benefit the needy in the society. The eye
bank is planning to open 50 eye banks
across the country and provide free treatment for corneal blindness to people
from economically weaker sections.
Y.P. Mahindru Niramaya Eye Bank provides Cornea Transplants free of cost.
Niramaya Charitable Trust runs 10 rural
eye care centres to provide primary eye
care. The transplants are carried out at
the fully-equipped and reputed Ahooja
Eye Hospital, Gurgaon. Mahindru Foundation has taken to wide awareness
campaigns on eye donations, through
carnivals, marathons, seminars, painting
competitions, walk for vision event, etc.
The foundation has dedicated its services
to eradicate corneal blindness from the
country and aims at creating: modern facilities using best technology and equipment, extensive awareness about merits
of eye donations and providing high
quality medicare free of cost for the benefits of poor and under privileged. So far
the foundation has received 7000 to 8000
eye donation pledges, and conducted
more than 1200 corneal Retrieval and
more than 400 cornea transplantations.
The foundation has adopted professional
strategies to achieve its objectives. The
strategies include creating primary eye
care and eye donation facilities jointly
with like-minded NGOs at all cities with
0.5 million population, and setting up
one integrated hub having 9-12 remote
centres and the central unit with cornea processing facility attached to a full
fledged eye hospital.
“We plan to open 50 eye banks all over
India to ensure that corneal blindness is
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
completely wiped out from India,” Ashok
Mahindru, who heads Y P Mahindru Eye
Bank, said.
The major cause for this unfortunate
situation is lack of awareness among our
countrymen about eye donations, its
need and life changing impact on entire
families of cornea recipients who are able
to see this beautiful world again. Therefore, there is an urgent need to raise
awareness about eye donation. With the
vision of working towards total eradication of corneal blindness from the country, the Gurgaon-based NGO – Y.P. Mahindru Niramaya Eye Bank, under Ashok
Mahindru, has crossed the milestone of
1000 eye donations in 2012.
Ashok Mahindru, who has carried forward his father’s dream initiative Y.P.
Mahindru Niramaya Eye Bank. Many of
With a vision to reach out to many more
and bring light in their life and family,
Ashok Mahindru through his organization is relentlessly working hard to set up
many more such eye banks.
Infact Ashok Mahindru is actively involved in other philanthropic initiatives
also. Ashok Mahindru’s father Late Shri
Y.P Mahindru was founder member of a
school in 1959, named Arya Kanya Vidyalaya in Gurgaon. The school presently has
825 students most of them are getting
free education, books & uniform as per
the guidance of Ashok Mahindru.
Arya Veer Netra Chikitsalaya, committed
to eye care, was started as a weekly dispensary and grew to become a daily one.
Under the leadership of Ashok Mahindru,
it has now become a full-fledged 12-bed
hospital with an operation theatre. Nine
doctors and other para-medical staff perform almost 1000 cataract and other surgeries and 3000 OPDs in a year here.
Case Study
The company has a well defined policy and a CSR committee consisting of senior members
of the management to guide the CSR activities of the Group.
19
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Skilling Ethnic Communities of
Rubber Tappers of Tripura
Rubber Tapping Training Programme is running its third year and has Trained 315 Rubber Tappers.
DSGroupactivelyemployslocalsfromtheregionacrossdifferentlevelsandaimstogenerateemploymentthroughvarioussecondary&tertiaryoperations.
DS Group has an ongoing programme to train the unskilled or semi skilled rubber tappers of Tripura. The basic objective of this initiative is to train the tribals
and the unskilled tappers in scientific latex extraction to increase the rubber yield and minimize the damage to the rubber plant by teaching them precision
in tapping. The curriculum also highlights the method of tapping rubber in monsoon season and protection of plants from fungal infections during rains by
conducting theoretical and practical training programs with the help of the Rubber Board, TFDPC and TRTC.
A
total of 13 training programme have been organised till date, in which, 315 unskilled and
semi skilled rubber tappers were trained. Corporate Social Responsibility forms an integral aspect
of DS Group’s business objectives. Taking this philosophy forward, the company has been executing
a wide range of CSR programs on education, health,
drinking water, empowerment and disaster relief. The
Company believes that economic empowerment of
individuals transforms them into powerful agents of
social change.
DS Group has set up an ultra modern Heat Resistant Rubber Thread manufacturing plant in Agartala.
This state-of-the-art manufacturing facility has an
installed capacity of 5000MT per annum and has
earned the status of a Mega Project from the state
government. The opening of this plant, has given an
impetus to the socio economic growth of the region
and a livelihood opportunity to more than 200 tribal
families, by buying the latex they tap.
The Company has long term programmes running
in Tripura to support the local communities through
initiatives like school kits distribution and free DS Mobile Clinics. The company has also started a program
on empowerment to train the unskilled and semiskilled rubber tappers in scientific way of rubber tapping. This will increase the latex collection and the life
of the rubber plants, which, in turn will contribute to
high yields, thereby improving the lives of the tribal
farmers.
The climate condition of Tripura is very favorable for
growing rubber. Thousands of marginal / small farmers, who have 1-5 acres of tilla (undulating) land, have
been planting rubber for the last few decades. As a result large quantity of rubber is being produced every
year and recently the state has been declared as the
second largest rubber growing state in India, next to
Kerala. It is a cash crop, is a profitable cultivation and
gradually has become popular amongs the farmers.
It was however observed, that in Tripura, tapping decreases significantly during monsoon as the tappers
are not aware of tapping techniques in rains. All this
leads to less productivity and consequently less income for the tappers.
Tapping is a skilled job and the tapper should have
sufficient technical knowledge about the science
involved in the process, to do the job properly. But
due to lack of proper scientific knowledge, maximum
plants do not give adequate latex and gets damaged
at a very young age.
Thus, DS Group decided to start a unique Training
program for Rubber Tappers.
Objectives
Background of Participants
The objectives of the programme are:
The training Programmes were organised for the existing rubber tappers to improve
their skiils. A total of 315 trainees have been trained in the 13 training programs. Details of participants given below:
•
To provide training to unskilled or semi skilled rubber tappers through well designed module
•
To improve the socio economic status of rubber tappers from backward communities
•
To increase the production of natural rubber (latex) through scientific rubber
tapping in the state
Locations
The training programmes were organised for the existing communities involved in
rubber tapping or related activities. Following locations were covered in the first
phase:
Location
From
To
Bhati Fatik Charra, Mohanpur
Nov 19, 2011
Dec 17, 2011
Pepireakhola, Rajnagar Block, Belonia
Dec 19, 2011
Jan 12, 2012
Tarapur, Hezamara
Feb 12, 2012
March 12, 2012
Poangbari , Melaghar
March 18, 2012
March 31, 2012
Harendra Nagar, Mohanpur
April 18, 2012
April 30, 2012
From
To
Sabar Colony Para of Bagafa, South Tripura
July 22, 2012
August 10, 2012
Haripur, Motai GP, Hrishamuk
Aug 22, 2012
Sept 10, 2012
Mujaffar Para, North Bharat Chandra Nagar, Ra- Sept 14, 2012
jnagar
Oct 5, 2012
Owangchara A.W.C Rajnagar
Nov 3, 2102
Nov 25, 2012
Dhuptali Colony, Kakrabon, Gomati
Dec 16, 2012
Jan 4, 2013
Devipur A.W.C, Hrishyamukh, South Tripura
Jan 21, 2013
Febr 9, 2013
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
Total
%
20 or less than 20
59
18.73
Between 21 to 30
154
48.88
More than 30
102
32.38
Total
315
100
Mostly participants are young; the average age is 27.83 years. Out of total participants, almost 70% were below 30 years and many are from tribal and backward classes. We ensure that at least 30% of the participants are Women.
Training Duration and content
As per the Rubber Board Guidelines, 70 to 75 hours are required to complete the
training on scientific rubber tapping. The following aspects were covered in the training programs:
• Importanceoftrainingforscientificrubbertapping
• Identificationofplantsfortapping
• Introductionoftools&equipmentsfortapping
In Second phase below mentioned locations has been covered.
Location
Age Group (in years)
• Collectionoflatexandfurtherpreservation
• TappingmanagementduringtheMonsoonperiodandInjuredplantprotection
from several fungal diseases
• Visittorubberprocessingunit.
• Personalitydevelopment
Impact of First Phase
Total 125 unskilled and semi skilled rubber tappers have been trained in first phase
of the program.
Case Study
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
An impact assessment was conducted to understand the outcome of the first phase
of the program. A total of 62 participants were contacted out of the 125 trainees. The
responses of the participants given below:
Occupation before the Training Program
Occupation
Before Training
Labour related to rubber tapping
33
Farmer
4
Rubber Tapping
14
Home maker
4
Rubber Nursery
1
Unemployed
6
Total
62
Before attending the training 33
(53.2%) participants were garden
labourers who used to support
tapping activities only and 22.6%
participants were involved in rubber tapping as primary occupation.
After the training programme all
the participants are working as
rubber tappers. Of the total par-
‘‘
“Rubber Tappers in the rural
Northeast area are untrained as
far as rubber tapping is concerned. Moreover, the plants
are affected with diseases and
the lifespan of the rubber plants
were found declining. Monsoon
is the ideal for taping rubber but
majority of them failed to tap it
because that had no training to
do so. This training programme
covers all aspects of scientific
Rubber tapping and also teaches
them a method to tap Rubber in
monsoons. The socio economic
conditions of the tappers has
improved considerably as even
the garden owners now prefer
trained tappers who keep the
trees safe , get maximum produce and can tap rubber round
the year.
‘‘
Bhavna Sood,
Senior Vice
President Corporate
Communications,
PR and CSR, DS Group
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
20
Skilling Ethnic communities
of Rubber Tappers of Tripura
ticipants, 88.7% of them are full time tappers (primary occupation is rubber tapping).
Rest of the participants are also engaged in other aspects of rubber tapping business
like managing nursery and latex marketing. The current graph shows the income of
the participants. Before the training, the monthly income of the 59.7% participants
were below Rupees 3000/- where as 9.7% participants were unemployed or involved
in householdwork. After the training program, the monthly income of 70.9% participants has become more than Rs. 4500 in a month while 21% participants are able to
earn between Rs. 3000-4500 per month (part time engagement).
Present Status
The company is continuing providing training program to the semi skilled and unskilled rubber tappers. The third phase of the program started in June 2013. Below
mentioned locations have been covered till date:
Location
From
To
Gamaibari, Kashia Mongal, Khuwai Tripura
June 18, 2013
July 13, 2013
Devipur A.W.C ,Hrishyamukh R.D. Block
July 18, 2013
August 14,2013
Further, the following locations will be covered in the current phase.
S. No.
Location
Block
District
1
Laxmibil
Bisalghar
Sipahijala
2
Niharnagar
Rajnagar
South Tripura
3
Sarasima
Hrishymukh
South Tripura
4
Mirza
Kakraban
Gumati
DS Group
Dharampal Satyapal Group (DS Group) is a rapidly growing multi-diversified conglomerate, with a turnover of
more than Rs 3300 crores in the fiscal ending 2013. The
Group has strong presence in F&B, Hospitality, Mouth
Fresheners, Tobacco, Packaging, Agro forestry, Rubber
Thread and Infrastructure. The most recent forays have
been the Group’s entry into the Dairy, Confectionary
and Powdered Beverages businesses. DS Group is committed towards premium quality products & credited
with several innovations over last eight decades.
Catch Spices, Catch Spring water, Catch flavoured water,
Chingles-the mini chewing gums, Piyoz, Yomil- the one
minute shake, Dairymax, Meetha Mazaa, Tulsi, Pass Pass,
Rajnigandha, Tansen, Tulsi Saada, The Manu Maharani
and Unitex are some of the leading brands the Group
proudly shelters today.
DS Group constantly nurtures its responsibility as a
committed corporate citizen by regarding Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) as an integral part of its business objectives.
The company has a well defined policy and a CSR committee consisting of senior members of the management to guide the CSR activities of the Group. Wide
range of CSR initiatives ranging from education to
health to safe drinking water and making tribal and ethnic communities self reliant are being implemented on
ground, all over the country. The Group works strongly
on the principles of sustainability, dedication, resourcefulness and commitment.
Article
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Earthquake, landslides, cloud-burst, flash-floods are not new to the people of Uttarakhand, but 16th June 2013, came as horror day for them, when thousands of people
lost their lives in this calamity. It appeared as if Lord Shiva decided to intervene about
the wrong doings taking place in his own land.
21
12 Years of Uttarakhand Formation and
66 Days of Uttarakhand Catastrophe
By Anil Jaggi
We need to make green GDP, Sustainable and Inclusive Development as our priority. We
need to design our vision documents considering these fragile issues. At the cost of safe
and green earth, no development is desirable and justified.
‘‘
Earthquake, landslides, cloud-burst, flash-floods are not new to the
people of Uttarakhand, but June16, 2013, came as horror day for
them, when thousands of people lost their lives in this calamity. It
appeared as if Lord Shiva decided to intervene about the wrong doings taking place in his own land. Many families have lost their shelters and many villagers have lost the bread earners of their family.
Ignoring the basics of sustainable, safe and
green development, the policy makers were
happily giving very rosy picture of development.
Citizens could not understand that this all was
fake development, while it is disastrous route
for its habitats, biodiversity. They had aspired,
fought and scarified their lives to get separate
developed Himalayan state while protecting the
nature’s blessings.
Earthquake, landslides, cloud-burst, flash-floods
are not new to the people of Uttarakhand, but
16th June 2013, came as horror day for them,
when thousands of people lost their lives in this
calamity. It appeared as if Lord Shiva decided to
intervene about the wrong doings taking place
in his own land. Many families have lost their
shelters and many villagers have lost the bread
earners of their family.
Thanks to Indian Army, Indian Air Force, other
paramilitary forces, local NGOs, CSOs and many
more unsung heroes who helped 100,000 plus
people get evacuated from there within few
days. According to state government, 5748 people are still missing and more than 2500 mules
were washed away. Many small villages/clusters
are shaken badly and are not safe for further
habitation. There is major loss of human life, liveCSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
‘‘
T
he memories are still fresh in my mind
and I still remember the call from a friend
in New York, informing me about the formation of new state “Uttarakhand”. It was
a moment of great happiness and fulfilment, not
only for myself but the whole Uttarakhandi community across the world. Every non resident Uttarakhandi was excited and wanted to contribute
towards the progress, prosperity and inclusive
growth of the state. But gradually they realised
that political leadership and bureaucracy are
not concerned for equitable development of the
state. Even they seemed ready to sell green cover of the state (65 % of total land area), natural
resources (forest, rivers, minerals etc.) to become
wealthy and powerful overnight. Ruling parties
(BJP & Congress) did not take long in selling the
thousands of water streams coming down from
hills to greedy power sector companies. It all
happened despite the regular protest from environmentalists like Sunder Lal Bahuguna, Chandi
Prasad Bhatt, Prof. Agarwal and seers from all
over India.
stock, agriculture, business activities and major
loss of infrastructure in terms of road, bridges,
telecom etc. Interestingly, metrological department gave alerts in advance to state government
about heavy rains and possible cloud burst. But
as usual, the government officials did not give
any quick response to these alerts. The government machinery miserably failed in taking the
preventive steps to reduce the impact of the natural calamity. This led to a blame game between
government and metrological department for
the loss of thousands of lives. At the beginning
of rescue operation, government did not have
any idea about the number of people stranded
there. No database of the residents, tourists and
vehicles was available with the authorities.
Coverage by the media helped government
to get the understanding of the severity of the
catastrophe. Help started pouring in from all
over India for rescue and relief work. Our team
(from SFID-Society For Inclusive Development)
jumped into it by extending help to the agencies and groups working in this mission. Inspite
of meteorological department warnings of
heavy rains in the coming days, we finally moved
to Kedar Valley in the first week of July. Loaded
with emergency medicines, ration etc. we left
for Kedar Valley and reached Guptkashi, passing through broken roads & damaged bridges
witnessing landslide on the way. Next day team
SFID visited many severely affected villages. We
kept on changing vehicles due to landslides/
road blocks and even trekked down many villages to meet the victims. We realised that this
disaster has not hit at one level, but it is a multi
level disaster. Of course it is nature’s fury added
with ineffective governance (at preparedness
& response level), lack of vision and directions.
We cannot escape from our own responsibilities,
poor planning, insensitive approach towards
mother earth and ever growing greed of human
being, to make more & quick money by exploiting our own natural resources.
Next day we stopped at one Hydel project site,
setup on one of the tributary of Mandakini river.
Guards on duty informed us about the damage
to the power house. To our surprise, local villagers expressed their mixed emotions toward the
damage caused to the ongoing hydel projects.
Villagers consider them as main culprits for damaging the basic attributes of the mountains. It
was interesting to know, how around 70 hydel
projects were built in last few years, in which 23
mega projects of 100 MW, 22 Medium Projects
of 10-100 MW and 25 small projects of less than
10 MW are coming up. They are damaging local eco system, cutting down large number of
trees, using tonnes of dynamite to shake mountains for constructing huge tunnels. We were
surprised that, when a layman can explain the
logics & probable reasons for this calamity in Uttarakhand hills for the sake of so called development, but probably our decision makers, experts,
political leaders are not willing to understand.
While we trekked number of villages, we could
not find government officials, except some local
NGOs and CSOs involved in relief work. Not even
local MPs/MLAs were present there. Our ministers were busy in debating on national television
channels, as if it was an opportunity for them to
come in limelight at national level forgetting
their own people in distress and pain.
Our conclusive observation is that in this fragile
eco zone, natural disasters are part and parcel of
life. The more we challenge the nature, it will hit
back with more force as it is a balancing act of
nature. Looking at the whole disastrous event,
it reminded me the quote of Paulo Coetho that
human beings always say, “Save the Planet”
but what Planet must be saying “Save yourself
Idiots, I will take care of myself!”. So, with this
understanding I can say that leaving behind
the concerns of nature, even damaging it, the
development will always remain fake! The talk
of development in terms of growing concrete
buildings, industries, growing GDP etc. is not the
actual development.
We need to make green GDP, Sustainable and Inclusive Development as our priority. We need to
design our vision documents considering these
fragile issues. At the cost of safe and green earth,
no development is desirable and justified. We
have to fix the responsibility and accountability
for death of large number of innocent people
and loss of life. The handling of post disaster rescue operations and the development of amiable
future developmental design has to be done in
more planned and nature friendly manner. People of Uttarakhand, land of Chipko, never wanted such disastrous development for their state.
We do need development, we do need infrastructure and we do need responsible industry/
business to create employment with people’s
participation, but not at the cost of endangering
human life and our eco system.
General questions in the masses today are“Was it possible to avert such Catastrophe?”
If Yes, then why we didn’t!
“Is the government ready to deal with future
calamities?” If Yes, then how?
Anil Jaggi is the Executive Editor, CSR & Competitiveness based at Dehradun.
The Magazine for CSR and Sustainability Leaders
&
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
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Interview
Sunfame India’s product portfolio includes range of innovative with latest technology solar powered lanterns and power packed home lighting
solution system.
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
23
Our Dream is to Bring Solar Energy
to Reach all Strata of Society
Rajat Bothra, Director, Sunfame India
Sunfame India is a venture of East India group. Sunfame India aspires to become one of the leading player in off-grid solar products. In an interview with
CSR & COMPETITIVENESS, Rajat Bothra, Director, Sunfame India, speaks about
the Solar Products and and how products are sustainable and creating hope for India.
‘‘
Sunfame India’s has unwavering commitment for promoting good quality products with
clear polices on after sales
service at the best price.
‘‘
Tell us about Sunfame India and its vision and mission.
Sunfame India is a part of East India Group. We are
committed in promoting solar energy for empowerment of communities that are deprived off grid
connectivity or have partial access to electricity
that will lead to inclusive growth in Indian economy. Our vision is to innovate and promote solar
products that will be towards creating H.O.P.E. for
holistic development. Our dream is to bring solar
energy within reach of all strata of our society.
Further, we work towards removing the dependence on Kerosene (instead of giving healthy light,
it slowly kills people) and any other conventional
methods (like wood burning) for lighting.
How is H.O.P.E different from HOPE?
Our H.O.P.E is very different from HOPE. Through
all our solar energy products we will be striving
towards creating H (Improving Health – eliminating dependence on Kerosene), O (Creating Social
and Economic Opportunities), P (enhancing Prosperity – eliminating dependence on non-renewable energy to unlimited source of clean n healthy
energy), E (promoting Education).
What makes you passionate about Solar Products?
In our country, there are more than 30,000 non
electrified villages and electrified villages face
problem of poor or intermittent power supply,
power cuts, high fluctuation etc. This leads towards poor quality of life of rural as well as urban
population.
Solar energy is one of the easily available resource
which can help in solving the problem of power
scarcity. Solar powered products promote clean
and healthy environment (Zero pollution and unlimited source of energy).
Please brief us about your Product
Portfolio?
Sunfame India’s product portfolio includes range
of innovative with latest technology solar powered lanterns and power packed home lighting
solution system.
Does Sunfame India have manufacturing process for solar products in India?
Yes, presently we have set up a testing lab for
solar products at our existing venture East India
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
Technology Company. We have capabilities to
manufacture innovative and multiple solar powered products in India through our existing sister
concerns’ manufacturing setup in Dehradun and
Bangalore.
Does Sunfame India have an in-house
research & development team or outsourcing from other company?
We have an in-house strong research & development team which constantly keeps on working
and upgrading our existing product range, developing new technology, and innovating new solar
products.
How important has it been for Government to show such leadership in supporting solar power?
Today, the biggest challenge we are facing is to
educate and generate awareness among the people on the cost-benefit analysis of solar products.
Through Ministry of New & Renewable Energy
(‘MNRE’) and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. (IREDA), the Indian Government is trying to regulate solar industry and promoting solar powered products through multiple
levels of support activities. Indian Government is
playing the utmost responsible role in promoting
solar energy in India.
How your products are competitive in
terms of prices amongst available options in the market?
Products” under their Corporate Social
Responsibility programmes?
First of all, we do not consider our products as
only solar powered products. We are promoting
green initiatives towards clean and green environment. We believe that we promoting multilevel integrated solar powered environment. To
explain this point through example, one of our
products “Shiksha” is targeted towards promoting
education. Shiksha works for 5-6 hours (after full
charge of 8 hours) and gives appropriate white
light which is very good for studying. It helps to
increase reading hours for students at evening
after getting dark in non electrified areas. In effect, we are promoting education and improved
health of students through our products. Therefore, Corporate India should look at our solar solutions as harbingers for creating H.O.P.E.
The use of solar energy in India could
help to change this problem, in providing a clean, cheap source of electricity
for many areas /communities.What are
your views?
As I mentioned earlier, Sunfame India’s mission is
to eliminate dependence of the people on “Kerosene (EVIL)” for lighting purposes.
Have you been seeing increased interest in alternative energy in recent
years due to high fuel prices?
Our product range offers solar powered product
(lantern) from Rs. 500-1500 with excellent product quality, durability, innovative with latest technology and reliable after sales service.
In recent years, we have noticed that with promotion of benefits of alternative / clean energy
through multiple modes of communication
platforms, the interest in alternative energy has
shown a positive trend.
Why people need to have Sunfame Solar Lamps in their households?
East India group
Sunfame India’s has unwavering commitment for
promoting good quality product with clear polices on after sales service at the best price.
Making low cost and easy electricity availability in the rural India, particularly in dense forest areas, is still
a challenge for the Government.
How do you think the government
agencies can take advantage from
your products?
It is a challenge for the government and private
players operating in this industry. However, with
public private partnership, promoting solar products will get huge boost. Further, building networking with Central, State and local level NGOs
or civil society organizations, we can generate
awareness and promote the solar products. Sunfame India is in discussion with private players
for developing effective distribution network and
channel across India.
How corporate India can take advantage by promoting “Sunfame Solar
E-Pack Polymers Pvt. Ltd.
E-Pack is India’s largest player in EPS packaging and provides custom moulded EPS
packaging to LG Electronics (India’s largest
consumer durables company) with large
distribution network across North India. It is
also a notable player in PU based pre-fabricated structures like modular corporate offices, schools, toilets, etc.
East India Technologies Pvt. Ltd
The company provides EPS packaging to
Philips, Panasonic, Dakin, Samsung Electronics and other customers. The company also
does PCB assembly for global giants like Schneider.
Edurables & EVision
The firm is the 2nd largest OEM manufacturer of air-conditioners and microwave ovens
for leading brands like LG Electronics, Voltas,
Philips and various other customers.
visit - www.sunfameglobal.com
Empowering Rural Youth
Vedanta IL & FL Skill School, Korba
Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd. (BALCO), through this premier project, has produced
nearly 2200 young men and women who are providing their services to various reputed
companies and are happy to have become ‘self reliant’.
T
he greatest achievement for anybody is ‘self reliance’. Robert D. Hales, rightly says “As we become self-reliant, we will be prepared to face challenges with confidence and peace of
mind.”
• TheVedantaIL&FLSkillSchoolwasputupinBalcoNagar,inKorbaintheStateofChhattisgarh,
tomakepeopleselfreliantandtoinstilconfidenceinpeoplebymakingthemskilledinvarious
fields.
• After learning about the requirements of various industries, the youth are trained in skilled
workslikesewing,weldingandinmasteringhospitality.AnationallevelagencyIL&FSassists
Balco in the project.
• Unemployedyoutharescreenedandthenprovidedamonth’sfreetrainingattheSchool.During their stay, accommodation, conveyance and meals are provided for by Balco.
• Though,theprojectwasstartedtotargettheyouthlivingbelowthepovertyline,thetraining
opportunitiesattheSchoolarealsoavailabletopromisingyoungpersonswhohaveazealfor
learning and in becoming self reliant.
Iam
proud
thatI
stand
on my
feet
‘AthithiDevoBhava’-meansourGuestisGodanditmeansmuchmoretoDeepikaMahant
as the feeling unfolds itself in a beautiful smile while she welcomes guests at Hotel Babylon,Raipur,Chattisgarh.Thetwinkleinhereyeandherconfidencespeakvolumesofher
hospitalityskills.
Daughterof,BudhwaMahantandAktiMahant,shelearnedtherudimentsofhospitalityat
aspecialcourse–‘AthithiSatkar’runbyVedantaIL&FSSchoolatBalconagar,Korba,Chhattisgarh.AresidentofNehruNagarinBalconagar,thisClass12Commercestudentdidnot
havethefaintestideawhatlifehadinstoreforher.ShehadcometotheSkillSchoolto
learnindustrialsewing,butaftercounsellingsheconvincedherselfthatsheshouldtake
uptrainingforthehospitalitysector.Thenewcourseonhospitality-‘AthithiSatkar’kindledherpassionforhospitality.ShepassionatelyfinishedthecourseandisgracingthefrontreceptionofHotelBabylon,Raipurtoday.
Lifehasitsupsanddowns.Growingup,Deepikarealisedthatherfather’searningsasalabourerwerenotenoughtobeartheexpenses
ofthefamily.Beingtheeldestofthetwosiblings,shelearntitearlythatshehadtosupplementherfather’searnings.Itwasherfather’s
visiontoletDeepikajointhenewlyintroducedhospitalitycourseattheBalcoSkillSchool.
Eversince,theJune28,2012,thefirstdayofherplacementinHotelBabylonatRaipur,Deepikaisbrimmingwithselfrelianceandconfidence.Alongwithherjob,sheisalsopursuingabachelor’sdegreeinCommerce.Herfacelightsupasyouaskheraboutherambition
–‘Togethigherandhigherinthehospitalityindustry’shesayswithconfidence.Hatsofftoherdiligenceandpassion!
Herfather,AktiMahant,couldn’tholdhistearsasDeepika’sfirstsalarygracedhispalm.“Iamproudofmydaughter”hesaidasjoy
floodedhisface.MahantnevermissesachancetopraiseVedanta’svisionandsupporttohelpunemployedyouthbeabletostandon
theirownfeet,justlikeDeepika.BalcoSkillSchoolisproudofDeepika!
VedantaIL&FLSkillSchool
Bharat Aluminium Company Limited
P.O.:BalcoNagar,Korba-495684
News
Tata Steel’s direct contribution to community development is Rs. 170.76 crores which is
3.37% of the Company’s Profit After Tax. This is not inclusive of the expenditure on environment, which is more than Rs. 300 cores.
04
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
T
Tata Steel CSR Touches 20 Lakh
Lives in Jharkhand and Odisha
ata Steel Ltd spent Rs. 170.76 crores towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) during financial year
2012-13 which is 3.37% of company’s Profit After Tax
(PAT) excluding spend on Environment Sustainability
which is about Rs. 300 crores. The Tata Steel CSR initiatives touched nearly 2 million lives last years, Tata Steel
said in Annual Report for the year 2012-13. Profit After
Tax at Rs 5063 crores during the financial year 2012-13
was lower by 24% as compared Rs 6696 to the financial year 2011-12.
The amount was spent under the broad categories
such as infrastructure development to improvement
to quality of the life of community, community development, health & medical support and support to
charities and NGOs & Government for social cause.
The operational area of the Company is the state of
Jharkhand and Odisha are plagued by poor social infrastructure for health services, education, road, electricity and other basic amenities. The range of interventions encompassed infrastructure support to rural
and urban schools through scholarships and coaching
classes as well as incentives like free mid-day meals to
encourage attendance form part of its key thrust area
for improving the quality of life.
Solar Streetlight Project
For instance under the solar streetlight project Tata
Steel installed solar streetlights in villages. To ensure
the upkeep of installed lights and their sustained use
by the village community, discussions were held with
community resulting in the constitution of committees called ‘Urja Samitee’. Select members from the
village community are enlisted onto the Urja Samitees
(Energy Committees) and are responsible for the
maintenance of the solar panels.
Thrust Area for CSR
Tata Steel focuses on responsible business practices
with community-centric interventions. The thrust area
for Tata Steel are sustainable livelihood-specially skill
development and employability training, education
and health care, all of which constitute the Human Development Index- a quality of life indicator.
Partners for CSR Implementation
Tata Steel partners with NGOs, Governments and funding agencies to implement its CSR interventions in the
thematic area of health, education, livelihoods and
ethnicity. Through employee volunteerism it also utilises in house resource persons.
The CSR activities are implements through the following delivery arms:
1. Corporate Sustainability Services comprising, Tata
Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS), Tribal
Culture Society (TCS), Tata Steel Family Initiatives
Foundation (TSFIF), Tata Steel Skill Development
Society (TSSDS), Urban Services and Education
2. Medical Services
3. Sports Department
4. Tata Steel Adventure Foundation
5. Jamshedpur Utilities & Services Company Limited
6. Other societies such as Ardeshir Dalal Memorial
Hospital, Blood Banks, Kanti Lal Gandhi Memorial
Hospital, etc.
7. Tata Relief Committee
Impact Assessment
ods such as social audit, aspiration surveys, village level study of Human Development Index (HDI) and XISS
JRD Tata Chair.
Social Audit : As a socially responsible corporate citizen, Tata Steel commissions social audits through independent professionals to get authentic and comprehensive review of its social activities. The Social Audit is
conducted in ten years.
Aspiration Surveys : Conducted among community
residing in the operational areas of Tata Steel in Odisha.
Village Level Study of Human Development Index
(HDI): Conducted by a team of researchers from Xavier
Labour Research Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur.
XISS JRD Tata Chair : The ‘JRD Tata Chair’ has been
instituted at Xavier Institute of Social Services, Ranchi
with the objective of conducting a study on ‘ Contribution of Tata Steel towards Sustainable Development .
The value underpinning all business actions at Tata
Steel is to serve Common Good, ensuring that all its
excellence programmes integrate economic, environmental and social performance driven.
What Does Sustainability Means to
Tata Steel?
Tata Steel has been one of the first companies in India to adopt sustainability as a policy. It is a core value,
built on our respect for people, our desire for growth
and our respect for the environment. Building further
on this vision, Tata Steel is the first Indian company
to be a part of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) – an international initiative towards
voluntary communication on how an organisation’s
strategy, governance, performance and prospects lead
to the creation of value over the short, medium and
long-term.
(Tata Steel, 106th Annual Report-2012-13)
The impact assessment is done through various meth-
Fullerton India Bags Asia CSR Award
for Community Development
Fullerton India has a widespread reach in Rural India through its network of 144 rural business
branches called Gramshakti, which service over 15,000 villages.
Inputs for handloom weavers for adoption of new techniques, designs and materials.
Training in sewing embroidery using machines to cater to
the garment industry
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
Fullerton India Credit Company Limited, a leading NonBanking Finance Company, has been granted the Asia
CSR Award for Community Development at the 3rd
Asia’s Best CSR Practices Awards event, held in Singapore on August 1, 2013. On behalf of Company, the
award was received by Anindo Mukherjee, Head of Integrated Risk Management, Fullerton Financial Holdings,
Singapore & Cynthia Lee, Director on Board of Fullerton
India & Head of Human Resources, Fullerton Financial
Holdings, Singapore.
The award was bestowed, recognising Fullerton India’s
Rural Livelihood Advancement initiative and its large
impact on rural households across India. The award is
Asia’s most prestigious and highest recognition of corporate organisations that have created a significant and
positive impact on the lives of people in society.
Fullerton India has a rich history of rural development
initiatives in India and has won a string of awards for its
CSR initiatives across various platforms, adding another
feather to its cap with this esteemed win.
Commenting on the occasion, Ravi Shankar, Executive
Vice President Marketing & Rural Business stated, “Fullerton India is strongly committed towards the overall
development of rural India and works towards this by
facilitating new and alternate vocational training programs to men and women in villages, across our rural
branch catchments.”
He added, “Our CSR initiative is focused on Rural Livelihood Advancement and designed to have a sustainable
impact on its beneficiaries. These programs aimed at rural households are implemented by engaging over 2000
of our employees. We are honoured to have received
this award as recognition towards our efforts and initiatives.”
As part of its Livelihood Advancement Initiative, Fullerton India conceptualises various Livelihood Programs
with Partner organisations across various disciplines,
thus bringing together Partner organisations like the
Government, NGOs, Socio-Economic development organisations, Manufacturing and Trading organisations
in the Private sector to implement the programs.
Fullerton India Credit Company Limited has over 360
branches spread across 20 states in urban and rural
centres. It offers several retail finance products for varying needs of customers ranging from rural households
to SMEs, in the locations it serves. Fullerton India has a
widespread reach in Rural India through its network of
144 rural business branches called Gramshakti, which
service over 15,000 villages. Fullerton India is a whollyowned subsidiary of Fullerton Financial Holdings, Singapore, which is a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings of
Singapore.
Cover Story
Historic Companies Bill, 2012
05
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Parliament Passes the
Historic Companies Bill, 2012
Six decades after the first Companies Act was enacted and over 20 years after liberalisation,
India inched closer to bringing more contemporary issues, such as corporate governance, investor protection,
corporate social responsibility and measures to check frauds, under the legislation.
‘‘
With the new legislation, India would
possibly become
the first country
to have Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) spending
through a statutory provision.
W
hen Companies Act, 1956, was promulgated there were only
30,000 companies while in May 2013, there are 13.21 Lakh
firms in India.
The historical New Companies Bill, which will replace the nearly 57-yearold Companies Act of 1956, was finally passed in Rajya Sabha by voice
vote on August 8, 2013. The lower house of parliament Lok Sabha had
already been cleared the bill December 18, 2012. Now, only the President’s assent will be required for it to become law. The draft rules on the
companies act will then be made public and the act comes into effect
with notification by Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
Wrapping up the debate in Rajya Sabha, Corporate Affairs Minister
Sachin Pilot termed the passage of the legislation a “historic feat”. “The
passage of the Bill will give impetus to the growth momentum,” Pilot
said, adding, “The focus of the bill is to enhance transparency and ensure fewer regulations, self reporting and disclosure...It will outline the
positivity in the economy”. The new law requires companies that meet
certain set of criteria, to spend at least two per cent of their average
profits in the last three years towards Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) activities.
‘‘
Replying to the debate on the bill in the Rajya Sabha, Corporate Affairs
Minister Sachin Pilot said it sought to bring India’s corporate governance in sync with the changing business environment of the 21st century. Pilot said the bill was progressive and the main focus was
on enhancing transparency and
compliance and it would help
growth of the economy.
“For the next two to three decades, this (new legislation) will
bring positivity in the economy,”
said Pilot adding that the views
of all the stakeholders, including
industry chambers, have been
taken into consideration. “The
focus of the bill is to enhance
transparency and ensure fewer
regulations, self-reporting and
disclosure,” Pilot said.
The Bill has been designed to
consist of 29 chapters, containing
470 clauses and 7 schedules.
The law has been rewritten extensively with several new provisions for investor protection,
better corporate governance and corporate social responsibility etc. It
defines a number of new terms such as Associate Company, Small Company, Employee Stock Option, Promoter, Related Party, Turnover, Chief
Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Global Depository Receipt,
that have come into vogue in recent times.
The new Bill has introduced numerous changes and concepts which
should simplify regulations and bring greater clarity and transparency
in managing businesses. The global environment calls for economic
laws and regulations that are effective and efficient, have a reasonable
compliance cost and keep Indian businesses competitive. Upon enactment, there will also arise the indispensable need for aligning the existing regulations with the new law.
Industry hopes that the working rules which are expected to be put out
in the public domain before notification would provide greater clarity
on the operative provisions in the Bill while taking into account legitimate concerns of India Inc.
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
Journey of Passing the Bill
The bill was first introduced as Companies Bill
2009 in Lok Sabha on August 3, 2009. It was
referred to Parliamentary Standing Committee
on Finance a month later. It brought back to the
Lok Sabha as Companies Bill 2011, but again
referred to the Standing Committee . Government accepted about 96 per cent of the suggestions of the Standing Committee. The bill
was cleared by the Lok Sabha after the standing committee submitted its report in June
2012. Lok Sabha had been passed the bill December 18, 2012
The Companies Bill, which will replace legislation that has often been criticised for being
outdated and cumbersome, had been in the
works for at least a decade but gained momentum after an accounting scandal at Satyam
Computer Services Limited in the year 2009.
This was country’s biggest corporate fraud case
where Satyam Computer Services caused loss
to the investors to the tune of Rs.14,162 crore.
The company head, Ramalinga Raju and members of his family secured illegal gains to the
tune of about Rs.2,743 crore by various tricks.
The new Companies Bill, on its enactment, will
allow the country to have a modern legislation
for growth and regulation of corporate sector
in India. In view of various reformatory and
contemporary provisions of the law, together
with omission of existing unwanted and obsolete compliance requirements, the companies
in the country will be able to comply with the
requirements of the Companies Act in a better
and more effective manner.
The existing statute for regulation of companies in the country, viz. the Companies Act,
1956 had been under consideration for quite
long for comprehensive revision in view of the
changing economic and commercial environment nationally as well as internationally. The
new law will facilitate business-friendly corporate regulation, improve corporate governance
norms, enhance accountability on the part of
corporates/ auditors, raise levels of transparency and protect interests of investors, particularly small investors.
The Companies Bill is commensurate with global standards vis-à-vis disclosure requirements,
increased democratic rights for shareholders,
self-regulation and accountability. At the same
time, it also seeks to restrain the management
powers of promoters, who nurture the company during its initial stages and provide the seed
capital.
In a country where 75-80% of the businesses are family-run/ promoter-driven, industry hopes that the new law would be able to
achieve the fine balancing between ownership
and management, which is crucial for success
of any enterprise and also fostering the spirit of
entrepreneurship.
Cover Story
Historic Companies Bill, 2012
06
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
The Bill provides for class action suit, the move aids individual shareholder to take action against companies,
better disclosure requirements in financial statements
and disclosure of interests of directors etc. The Bill has
tightened the screws on insider trading norms in the
country, it aims at prohibition on forward dealings in securities of company by key managerial personnel, insider trading rules and restriction on non-cash transactions
involving directors.
Highlights of the Companies Bill
•
Concept of One Person Company (OPC limited) introduced. Which will be treated as Private Limited
Company only.
•
The bill increased the number of members of private companies from 50 to 200. This allows companies access to large pool of capital without going
public.
•
cent stake against no thresholds earlier.
•
•
The bill restricts creation of multi-layered holding structures, prohibiting making investments
through more than two layers of investment companies.
•
The new bill bans holding ‘Treasury Stock’, which is
often used by companies to increase shareholding
or future monetization after consolidation.
•
The new bill asks that listed companies and other
specified companies will have to change individual
auditor after five years and audit firm after 10 years.
The old bill had no provisions for this.
•
Under the new bill, companies are required to
spend at least 2 per cent of their net profit on Cor-
The new bill gives recognition to transfer restrictions on inter-se shareholders – ‘Right of First Refusal’ will be enforceable. This would clear existing
ambiguity on legal enforceability on transfer restrictions under JV/shareholder agreements.
•
•
•
•
The new bill also has a detailed mechanism for acquisition of shares by majority shareholder from minority shareholders.
The salient features of the
new Companies Law
While the old bill only permitted merger of a foreign company with an Indian company, the new
bill allows merger of Indian companies into foreign
companies which would aid in consolidation of
cross-border businesses/assets.
c
e-Governance Initiatives;
c
Good Corporate Governance and CSR;
The new bill permits merger of a listed company
with an unlisted one, subject to exit opportunity
being offered to shareholders of the listed company.
c
Enhanced Disclosure norms;
c
Enhanced accountability of Management;
c
Stricter enforcement;
While the old bill depended on precedents for
merger of a subsidiary with a parent (or between
two small companies), the new bill provides a separate and simplified regime for this without any approval from High Court.
c
Audit accountability;
c
Protection for minority shareholders;
c
Investor protection and activism;
The new bill also gives rights for objections to
schemes to only creditors who owed over 5 per
cent and minority shareholders with over 10 per
•
The new bill also requires companies to appoint
one woman director.
•
The proposed legislation would ensure setting up
of special courts for speedy trial and stronger steps
for transparent corporate governance practices and
curb corporate misdoings.
•
The changed law allows more statutory powers to
the government’s investigative arm Serious Fraud
Investigation Office (SFIO) to tackle corporate fraud.
•
To help in curbing a major source of corporate delinquency, introduces punishment for falsely inducing a person to enter into any agreement with bank
or financial institution, with a view to obtaining
credit facilities.
•
The limit in respect of maximum number of companies in which a person may be appointed as auditor
has been proposed as 20.
•
Independent directors’ shall be excluded for the
purpose of computing ‘one third of retiring directors’.
•
Appointment of auditors for 5 years shall be subject
to ratification by members at every Annual General
Meeting.
•
‘Whole-time director’ has been included in the definition of the term ‘key managerial personnel’.
•
The term ‘private placement’ has been defined to
bring clarity.
•
Maximum number of directors in a private company increased from 12 to 15 which can be increased
further by special resolution.
•
Financial Year of any company can end only on
March 31 and only exception is for companies,
which are holding / subsidiary of a foreign entity requiring consolidation outside India, can have a different financial year with the approval of Tribunal.
Business friendly coporate Regulation/
pro-business initiatives;
c
c
porate Social Responsibility (CSR). The companies
to give preference to the local areas of their operation for such spending.
Better framework for insolvency regulation;
and Institutional structure.
Major Amendment in the Bill are as follows:
1.
(Amendment in Clause 135):
In the Section on Corporate Social Responsibility
(Section135), which is introduced as a statutory
provision for the first time, the words ‘make every
endeavour to’ have been omitted from its Subclause (5). So that the first para of Sub-clause (5)
of Clause 135 now reads as follows: “The Board of
every company referred to in sub-section (1), shall
ensure that the company spends in every financial year, at least two per cent of the average net
profits of the company made during the three immediately preceding financial years, in pursuance
of its Corporate Social Responsibility Policy.”
Such clause is also amended to provide that
the company shall give preference to local areas where it operates, for spending amount earmarked for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
activities. The approach to ‘implement or cite reasons for non implementation’ retained.
2.
4.
6.
(Amendment in Clause 186):
Clause 186 amended to provide that the rate of
interest on inter corporate loans will be the prevailing rate of interest on dated Government Securities.
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
(Amendment in Clause 203):
Provisions relating to separation of office of Chairman and Managing Director (MD) modified to allow, in certain cases, a class of companies having
multiple business and separate divisional MDs to
appoint same person as chairman as well as MD.
7.
(Amendment in Clause 147 And 245):
Provisions relating to extent of criminal liability of
auditors - particularly in case of partners of an audit firm - reviewed to bring clarity. Further, to ensure that the liability in respect of damages paid
by auditor, as per the order of the Court, (in case of
conviction under Clause 147) is promptly used for
payment to affected parties including tax authorities, Central Government has been empowered to
specify any statutory body/authority for such purpose.
8.
(Amendment in Clause 143):
Provisions relating to audit of Government Companies by Comptroller and Auditor General of India (C&AG) modified to enable C&AG to perform
such audit more effectively.
(Amendment in Clause 144):
Provisions relating to restrictions on non audit
services modified to provide that such restrictions
shall not apply to associate companies and further to provide for transitional period for complying with such provisions.
(Amendment in Clause 36):
To help in curbing a major source of corporate delinquency, Clause 36 (c) amended, to also include
punishment for falsely inducing a person to enter
into any agreement with bank or financial institution, with a view to obtaining credit facilities.
3.
5.
(Amendment in Clause 141):
The limit in respect of maximum number of companies in which a person may be appointed as auditor has been proposed as twenty companies.
9.
(Amendment in Clause 139):
Appointment of auditors for five years shall be
subject to ratification by members at every Annual General Meeting.
10. (Amendment in Clause 139):
Provisions relating to voluntary rotation of auditing partner (in case of an audit firm) modified to
provide that members may rotate the partner ‘at
such interval as may be resolved by members’ instead of ‘every year’ proposed in the clause earlier.
11. (Amendment in Clause 2):
Whole-time director’ has been included in the
definition of the term ‘key managerial personnel’.
12. (Amendment in Clause 42):
The term ‘private placement’ has been defined to
bring clarity.
13. (Amendment in Clause 61):
Approval of the Tribunal shall be required for consolidation and division of share capital only if the
voting percentage of shareholders changes consequent on such consolidation.
14. (Amendment in Clause 152):
Clarification included in the Bill to provide that
‘Independent Directors’ shall be excluded for the
purpose of computing ‘one third of retiring Directors’. This would bring harmonisation between
provisions of Clause 149(12) and rotational norms
provided in Clause 152.
15. (Amendment in Clause 470):
Provisions in respect of removal of difficulty modified to provide that the power to remove difficulties may be exercised by the Central Government
up to ‘five years’ (after enactment of the legislation) instead of earlier up to ‘three years’. This is
considered necessary to avoid serious hardship
and dislocation since many provisions of the Bill
involve transition from pre-existing arrangements
to new systems.
Cover Story
Historic Companies Bill, 2012
07
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Business Chambers Welcome
the New Companies Bill
Board Shall Ensure the Company CSR Spends
Leading business chambers and professional body including FICCI, CII and The Institute
of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has
welcomed the New Law.
“We heartily welcome the passageoftheCompaniesBillwhich
will give India a comprehensive
and contemporary legislation.
This legislation is indeed a milestone in the history of company
lawandwillrevolutionizetheadministrationandmanagementof
businessesinthetimestocome.
FICCIhopesthattherearenoinconsistencies
in various laws since consistency and certainty in laws helps in effective functioning
ofbusiness.Anylegislationevolveswithtime
andwearecertainandhopefulthatthenew
Companies Act while providing an enabling
environmentforsmoothworkingandgrowth
ofIndiaInc.willalsoaddressvalidconcernsof
theIndustry.TheBillhasbeenthroughmany
stagesofdiscussionandhasbroughtinmany
radicalchangestotheerstwhileAct.FICCIhas
been part of these discussions and compliments the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and
its officials for adopting a highly pragmatic
andconsultativeapproachtowardsevolution
ofthepresentdayCompaniesBill.”
Naina Lal Kidwai,President,FICCI
Once the new law is put in place, profit-making
companies will be required to spend two per cent
oftheiraveragenetprofitofthreeyearsonactivities
relatedtocorporatesocialresponsibility(CSR).Three
yearswillbecountedasprecedingtheoneduring
whichCSRwastobeundertaken.
However, the government has diluted the mandatoryprovisionforCSRafterobjectionsfromIndiaInc.
Thosefailingtomeettheobligationwillhavetoexplainthereasonsfortheshortfall.Thenormisvalid
onlyforcompanieswithnetworthofRs.500croreor
more,orturnoverofRs.1,000croreormore,oranet
profit of Rs. 5 crore or more, during the past three
financial years. Experts believe this would bring a
paradigmshiftbecausetheoldlegislationonlyprovidedforvoluntaryguidelinesforCSR.Itwillcreate
anopportunityforcompaniestoevolveinnovative
strategiestocontributetowardsinclusivegrowth.
The Purpose of Inclusion of CSR in the Companies
Bill
• TheCSRprovisionsoftheBillseektocreatean
enablingenvironment;
• Billallowscorporatestoharnessandchannelize
their core competencies as well as develop effectivebusinessmodels;
• Itwillpromoteandfacilitatefarbetterconnect
betweenbusinessesandcommunities.
• Itwillfacilitatedeeperthoughtandlongerterm
strategies for addressing some of our most
persistent social, economic and environmental
problems;
• It will assist in synergizing partnerships between Corporates, Governments, Civil Society
Organizations,AcademicInstitutionsandSocial
Entrepreneurs.
Catalytic Role of the Bill
(c) monitor the Corporate Social Responsibility
Policyofthecompanyfromtimetotime.
(4) TheBoardofeverycompanyreferredtoinsubsection(1)shall,
(a) after taking into account the recommendations made by the Corporate Social ResponsibilityCommittee,approvetheCorporateSocial
ResponsibilityPolicyforthecompanyanddisclose contents of such Policy in its report and
alsoplaceitonthecompany’swebsite,ifany,in
suchmannerasmaybeprescribed;and
(b) ensurethattheactivitiesasareincludedinCorporateSocialResponsibilityPolicyofthecompanyareundertakenbythecompany.
(5) The Board of every company referred to in
sub-section(1),shallensurethatthecompany
spends,ineveryfinancialyear,atleasttwoper
cent.oftheaveragenetprofitsofthecompany
madeduringthethreeimmediatelypreceding
financial years, in pursuance of its Corporate
SocialResponsibilityPolicy:
Providedthatthecompanyshallgivepreferenceto
thelocalareaandareasarounditwhereitoperates,
forspendingtheamountearmarkedforCorporate
SocialResponsibilityactivities:
Providedfurtherthatifthecompanyfailstospend
such amount, the Board shall, in its report made
under clause (o) of sub-section (3) of section 134,
specifythereasonsfornotspendingtheamount.
Explanation. For the purposes of this section“averagenetprofit”shallbecalculatedinaccordance
withtheprovisionsofsection198.
•
“WecommendtheGovernmentfor
prioritizingtheBill.ItshowstheGovernment’s commitment to usher in
theneweraofcorporateregulation.
TheCompaniesBillasinitspresent
form is a culmination of efforts for
over a decade and we are happy
that many of CII’s views have been
incorporatedinthelegislation.Now
thatthelawisready,itistimetofocusand
work on the practical aspects of complying
with its provisions. CII will continue to engage with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs
toworkoutthemodalitiesforvariousprovisionsthatprescribedelegatedlegislationin
theformofRules.Onesuchvitalprovisionis
surelytheclausedealingwithCSRspend.”
Chandrajit Banerjee,
DirectorGeneral,
ConfederationofIndianIndustry
“ Thenewlawpromisesimprovedcorporategovernancenorms,enhanced
disclosuresandtransparency,facilitationofresponsibleentrepreneurship,
increased accountability of company
managements and auditors, protection of interest of investors particularly small and minority investors,
better shareholder democracy, facilitation of corporate social responsibility
(CSR) and stricter enforcement processes.
New Companies law will further accelerate
the transformation of Company Secretaries
intocorporategovernanceprofessionalsby
recognizingthemasKeyManagerialPersons
in a Company along with the Chief ExecutiveOfficer/ManagingDirector/Manager,
Whole-Time Director and Chief Financial
Officer.TheCompanySecretaryisexpected
tobecometheChiefGovernanceOfficerof
theCompanyandleadthegovernanceinitiatives. It envisages a much larger role for
Company Secretaries in areas of secretarial
audit, restructuring, liquidation, valuation
andmuchmore.”
S. N. Ananthasubramanian,
President,CouncilofTheInstituteofCompanySecretariesofIndia
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
•
•
The Bill also provides great flexibility to businessandindustryforstrategizingandconductingtheirCSRinitiatives;
Intention of government and purpose of bill
isnottomakearigidstructurewhichwillconstrainthecreativityandimaginationofthecorporates;
It will enhance their efforts, provide an even
broaderplatformandre-energizetheirefforts.
Company Bill, 2012
Section 135
(1) Everycompanyhavingnetworthofrupeesfive
hundred crore or more, or turnover of rupees
one thousand crore or more or a net profit of
rupeesfivecroreormoreduringanyfinancial
yearshallconstituteaCorporateSocialResponsibility Committee of the Board consisting of
three or more directors, out of which at least
onedirectorshallbeanindependentdirector.
(2) TheBoard’sreportundersub-section(3)ofsection 134 shall disclose the composition of the
CorporateSocialResponsibilityCommittee.
(3) TheCorporateSocialResponsibilityCommittee
shall,
(a) formulateandrecommendtotheBoard,aCorporate Social Responsibility Policy which shall
indicatetheactivitiestobeundertakenbythe
companyasspecifiedinScheduleVII;
(b) recommendtheamountofexpendituretobe
incurred on the activities referred to in clause
(a);and
Number of Registered Companies Crossed 13-lakh Mark
Thetotalnumberofregisteredcompaniesinthecountryhascrossed13lakhmark,but1.44lakhofthese
firmsare‘dormant’andhavenotfiledtheirannualreturnsforpastthreeyears.
AsonMay31,2013,therewere13.21lakhcompaniesregisteredwithMinistryofCorporateAffairs.Ofthese,
asmanyas2.6lakhcompanieshavebeenclosedforvariousreasonsincludingcourtorderandvoluntary
windingup,whileanother30,435firmsareintheprocessofbeingliquidated,anofficialstatementsaid.
Besides,1.44lakhcompanieshavenotfiledtheirannualreturns/balancesheetsformorethanpastthree
consecutiveyearsandareclassifiedas‘dormant’.Thereare8.77lakhactivecompaniesofwhich1.5lakhhad
beenincorporatedwithinthepreceding18months.
New Rules to be in Place by FY’14 End
TheMinistryofCorporateAffairsexpectsalltherulesregardingtheCompaniesbilllikelytobeinplaceby
theendofthisfiscal,aftertakingintoaccountthesuggestionsfromexperts,publicandotherstakeholders.
Arulesadvisorycommitteecomprisingmembersfromleadingindustrychambers,dignitaries,expertsand
lawyersamongothers,iscurrentlyworkingondraftrulesandthesameareexpectedtobeputforthonMCA
websiteforpubliccommentsbytheendofthismonthitself,MinistryofCorporateAffairsJointSecretary
RenukaKumarsaid.
Philanthropy
Nilekani is among India’s growing list of “givers” who have pledged a significant portion
of their wealth towards philanthropy.
08
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Rohini Nilekani Sells Infosys Shares,
Raises Rs.163 cr for Philanthropic work
“For the past several years, I have taken philanthropic initiatives in multiple sectors such as education, water, environment and governance among others. The proceeds of the sale of shares,
post tax, will be deployed towards these and other philanthropic contributions, over time.”
- Rohini Nilekani
I
‘‘
An ex-journalist, author
and philanthropist, high
net worth individual
(HNI) Rohini Nilekani,
wife of one of Infosys
co-founder Nandan
Nilekani, raised about Rs
163.58 crore by selling
5.77 lakh of her shares of
the IT services company
for philanthropic work.
nfosys Ltd, a global leader in business consulting
and technology solutions, has said that wife of one
of its co-founder Nandan Nilekani, Rohini Nilekani,
has raised about Rs.163.58 crore by selling 577,000
shares of the company for philanthropic work in India.
Nilekani is the wife of Infosys co-founder Nandan
Nilekani, who is currently the chairman of the Unique
Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Mr Nilekani
founded Infosys with NR Narayana Murthy and five
others in 1981. He was the chief executive of Infosys
from March 2002 to April 2007.
Nandan holds 1.45% stake or 83,45,870 shares in this
Bangalore- based firm.
In a BSE filing, Infosys said Rohini Nilekani, who is
also a promoter in the company, sold 577,000 shares
between 16-19 July for a total of Rs.1,63,51,83,925.
After the sale, her stake in Infosys stood at 1.31% or
7,501,174 shares, it added. For the period ended 30
June, her stake in the firm was 1.41% or 8,078,174
shares.
In the filing, she said: “For the past several years, I
have taken philanthropic initiatives in multiple sectors such as education, water, environment and
governance among others. The proceeds of the sale
of shares, post tax, will be deployed towards these
and other philanthropic contributions, over time.”
Rohini, 53, has been an active woman philanthropist
for more than a decade. Her organization Arghyam
grants funds to organisations, which implement
and manage groundwater and sanitation projects
in India. Arghyam has made grants to recipients in
22 states of India since 2005, the year of its founding. Arghyam, a foundation she set up with a private
endowment, to work on water and sanitation issues
in India. She is also Founder-Chairperson of Pratham
Books, a charitable trust which seeks to put “A book in
every child’s hand.”
Rohini has been deeply involved with development
issues and is currently a member of the Audit Advisory Board of the Comptroller and Auditor General of
India. She sits on the Boards of many non-profits, notably ATREE (the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology
and the Environment) and Sanghamithra Rural Financial Services. Rohini has authored a novel – “Stillborn” - and also a non–fiction account of dialogues
she moderated between social and corporate leaders
called “Uncommon Ground”. Nilekani is among India’s
growing list of “givers” who have pledged a significant
portion of their wealth towards philanthropy.
‘‘
Tata Chemicals Invites Nominations
for Best Chemistry Teacher Award 2013
M
UMBAI: In line with its mission of serving society through science,
Tata Chemicals, a Tata Group Company, is organizing its 3rd edition of the annual BCTA (Best Chemistry Teacher Award) 2013 along
with Association of Chemistry Teachers (ACT) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). These awards recognize exceptional contribution of
individuals from the Chemistry teaching fraternity and inspire a whole
new generation to actively pursue chemistry and its allied subjects.
Nominations to apply for the awards will be open until September 30,
2013, wherein the applicant should be a full-time teacher engaged in
teaching chemistry to class XI, XII, Graduate or Post Graduate level.
The applicants of BCTA 2011 and 2012 (excluding the winners) are also
eligible to participate in BCTA 2013. The nominations for the entries
are classified in five distinct award categories: Best Chemistry Teacher
(Class XI/XII and equivalent), Best Chemistry Teacher (Bachelor’s Degree and equivalent), Best Chemistry Teacher (For Master’s Degree and
above), Best Chemistry Teacher for promotion of Chemistry as a subject and Best Young Chemistry Teacher.
Tata Chemicals has created an interactive website called the Human
Touch of Chemistry (www.humantouchofchemistry.com), wherein interested and eligible teachers can send in their nominations online for
awards in the above mentioned categories. Teachers can also submit
handwritten applications by downloading the forms from www.humantouchofchemistry.com
The winners for the awards will be selected by eminent panelists comprising renowned Indian
scientists, professionals and academia. The winner teachers will be felicitated at a formal award
ceremony which will be announced in November 2013.
Best Chemistry Teacher Award
Best Chemistry Teacher Award (BCTA) is an annual initiative organized by Tata Chemicals to honour exemplary chemistry teachers teaching class XI and XII, undergraduate courses and postgraduate levels. The Best Chemistry Teacher should demonstrate expertise in generating a passion for chemistry in students. This Award also takes into cognizance contributions made by
teachers towards promoting overall scientific literacy.
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
“With the tremendous
nationwide response received in the past, we are
excited to launch the third
series of the award. The
BCTA awards recognize
the efforts of teachers who
are responsible in creating
awareness and educating
the younger generation
about the intrinsic presence of Chemistry in everyday life and its role in
meeting modern day challenges. We at Tata Chemicals believe that chemistry
is fundamental to the sustainable development of
human society and this is
in line with our mission of
Serving Society through
Science.”
R. Mukundan
Managing Director,
Tata Chemicals
Article
The Indian philosophy sets it goals beyond this world transforming our lives even in the
next birth and this is where it differs from the philosophy propagated by the western
world.
09
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
CSR and Wisdom
from Ancient India
By Enakshi Sengupta & Vijay Kapur
Vijay Kapur & Enakshi Sengupta are the Executive Directors of Kohana – A dedicated CSR Consultancy (www.kohanacsr.com). They bring with them both academic and practical experience in the field of CSR.
T
‘‘
The importance
of a leader and
his role in society as a protector
and a giver was
also stressed by
Sri Krishna in the
Bhagvad Gita and
the same opinion was voiced
by Manu and
Shukrachrya.
he contemporary concept of Corporate Social Responsibility became
popular in India less than a decade ago.
CSR along with other management theories has been dominated by western
theories which happened due to colonization and widespread use of English
in many countries. When one digs a bit
deeper one can find that concepts and
management theories popularised by
the western world have been in use in India for centuries, long before it was codified by European thinkers. Sharma (2001)
explains that in order to gain success by
effective use of a management concept
it has to emerge from the soil of that
region, firmly rooted to its own culture.
Hence many countries have now taken
the endeavour to look back at their own
ancient scriptures and explore their own
system of management and CSR.
Practice of CSR can be traced back to the
ancient civilization in Greece (Eberstadt
1977). A similar development of CSR took
place in ancient India which was based
on the teaching of Vedas (Pandey and Tripathi 2002). The onus of CSR in ancient
India was bestowed to the king (Rig Veda
1-8), which emphasized the role of a king
as an accumulator of wealth and the use
of his wealth for the betterment of his
stakeholders or subjects. In return the
king would be blessed by his subjects
to grow and shine like a sun. The importance of a leader and his role in society as
a protector and a giver was also stressed
by Sri Krishna in the Bhagvad Gita and
the same opinion was voiced by Manu
and Shukrachrya. The Manusmriti states
that a country reaches a state of lawlessness and chaos without its king as the
king is the messenger of God on earth
to protect and look after his subjects. In
today’s world the state and then the firm
is expected to replace the king and become the benefactor of society.
‘‘
Indian philosophy is deep rooted in the
concept of Dharma or virtue. Dharma
as explained by Radhakrishnan (1929)
forms the basis of all social and moral
values practised by an individual or society. Taittiriya Upanishad instructs all
individuals to speak the truth (satyam
vada) and then to practice virtue (dharma cara). Dharma has been the guiding
light to right living and stability in society. The other concept that is expected to
guide individuals in India is the concept
of Karma (cause and effect). The concept
of Karma implies that the present state of
an individual is determined by their antecedent actions. Hence the law of Karma
along with virtue or Dharma forms the
basis of self-realization.
The Indian philosophy sets it goals beyond this world transforming our lives
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
even in the next birth and this is where it
differs from the philosophy propagated
by the western world.
The teachings in the four Vedas, namely, Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and
Atharva Veda form the fundamental basis of human life on earth. The Rig Veda
particularly states that the cosmic order
is governed by the physical relationship
of man to moral laws. Swami Dayananda
classified the Rig Veda into four orders
(Rig Veda 10-09-9). The first order is that
of ‘Gyana’ or transcendental knowledge
of absolute truth of God. The second order is action or ‘Karma’. The third order is
‘Upasana’ or worship and the fourth order is ‘Vigyan’ or science which is the allencompassing body of knowledge.
Vedic knowledge propagates that right
moral practice couple with knowledge
and right action leads to business excellence and a balanced life. Sri Krishna in
the Bhagvad Gita stated that “value system protects you if you follow it” (dharmo rakshati rakshaitaha). Swami Vivekananda in his teachings and reflection
of the Bhagvad Gita also states that the
basis of the social and political system in
a country rests on the goodness of mankind. While accumulation of wealth is
encouraged in ancient scriptures, it also
proposes the right action on the use of
wealth that is on self and on donation
for the welfare of others. It has been explicitly stated that whatever is given to
others selflessly comes back to the giver
in many folds (Rig Veda 1-8). Business is
viewed as an integral part of society; it
should create wealth for society through
right means of action of “sarva loka hitam” or well-being for all stakeholders.
Vedic literature while talking about business states:
“May we together shield each other
and may we not be envious towards
each other. Wealth is essentially a tool
and it continuous flow must serve the
welfare of the society to achieve the
common good of the society.” (Atharva Veda 3-24-5).
Sri Krishna in the Bhagvad Gita (3-13)
has said that all sorrows from society
would be removed if socially conscious
members of society enjoy remnants of
their work in creating selfless welfare
to others (Muniapan 2007).
When we summarize the teachings of Vedas and Bhagvad Gita we find that these
teachings advocate that business excellence should be weaved around spiritualism and is grounded in the concept of
self-determination and self-realization.
Secondly business should follow right
actions and right measures and should
be virtuous.
Thirdly business should accumulate
wealth through right actions Karma and
wealth should be shared equally with all
stakeholders.
Finally business can only achieve excellence if business practices are ethical
and socially responsible. If one reads the
Arthasashtra we find that Kautiliya while
mentioning the duties of a king, akin to a
business leader of today’s world, he mentions, that the king should have no selfinterest but his satisfaction should lie in
the welfare of his people and is summed
up in the line “bahujana sukhaya bahujana hitayachya” – the welfare of many and
happiness of many. In the Shantiparva of
the Mahabharata, the public interest is to
be accorded precedence over the leader’s interest. Kautiliya lays down three
mian responsibilities of a leader which
are ‘Raksha’ (security), ‘Palan’ (Growth)
and ‘Yogakshma’, which means welfare.
Kautiliya also stressed the happiness
of all stakeholders not only by wealth
and profit but by doing the right things
“sukhasya moolam dharma”.
The knowledge that exists in our ancient
scriptures gives us the direction towards
a better society and towards creating
happier and healthier stakeholders. The
teachings in the ancient scriptures borders on ethics and stakeholder management. Italso forms the basis of a good human being who believes in conducting
his work in a right and virtuous way resulting in the welfare of his stakeholders.
Reference:
• Eberstadt, N.N. (1977)‘What history tells
us about corporate responsibilities’, in A.B.
Carroll(Ed.), Business and Society Review
(Autumn) in Managing Corporate Social
Responsibilities.Boston, MA: Little, Brown
and Company.
• Muniapan, B. and Shaikh, J. (2007) Lessons in Corporate Governance from
Kautilya’sArthashastra in Ancient India,
World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management andSustainable Development
(WREMSD). Special Issue on: “Accounting
StandardsConvergence, Corporate Governance and Sustainability Practices in
East Asia”, Vol. 3,pp.50–51.
• Pandey,R.K.andTripathi,P.S.(2002)‘Vedic
values and corporate excellence’, in S.C.
Dhamijaand V.K. Singh (Eds), Vedic Values
and Corporate Excellence (pp.168–171).
Uttaranchal,India: Gurukul Kaugri University.
• Sharma,G.D.(2001)Managementandthe
IndianEthos.NewDelhi,India:Rupaand
Company.
• Radhakrishnan, S. (1929) Indian Philosophy: Volume 1 (2nd ed.). London, UK:
George Allen andUnwin.
News
Google wants to shine a spotlight on the many Indian non-profits working
to help solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
10
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Google Launches Rs 12 cr Hunt For
India’s Best Innovative Social Entrepreneurs
This is also part of Google’s ongoing giving efforts. Every year Google gives away approximately $100 million in grants, $1 billion in free and discounted apps
and ads, and 50,000 employee volunteer hours around the world. In 2012, Google launched the Global Impact Awards to support entrepreneurial non-profits
with a tech idea for how to change the world.
N
EW DELHI: Google has launched the
Google Impact Challenge in India,
asking Indian non-profits how they would
use technology to tackle problems in India
and around the world. The four submissions judged to be the best will each receive Rs 3 crores and technical assistance
from Google to help make their project a
reality.
“We are thrilled that the
Google Impact Challenge is
launching in India. It is a great
opportunity for Indian nonprofits to scale their efforts to
help solve some of our toughest problems. India already
has a rich tradition of corporate giving and hopefully the
Challenge will galvanize social
entrepreneurship in India.”
Rajan Anandan
Vice President and Managing
Director, Google India
On the eve of India’s independence, Google is celebrating the spirit of creativity, diversity and entrepreneurship that are the
hallmarks of the world’s largest democracy, by enabling the best local non-profits
that are using technology to make the
world better, faster.
Applications open today and Indian nonprofits are invited to apply online by September 5, 2013 at:g.co/indiachallenge.
A team from Google will review applications and announce 10 finalists on 21st
October. The public will then be invited to
learn more about the top 10 finalists and
cast a vote for their favourite projects. The
final event, to take place on October 31,
2013, will feature a judging panel including Google board member Ram Shriram;
Google’s Chief Business Officer, Nikesh
Arora; Jacquelline Fuller, Director, Google
Giving; Anu Aga, Social Worker and former Chairperson, Thermax and Jayant
Sinha, Managing Director, Omidyar Network India Advisors, who will select three
awardees. The fourth awardee, based on
online votes from the public, will also be
revealed.
In addition to backing Indian social innovators, Google wants to shine a spotlight
on the many Indian non-profits working
to help solve some of the world’s most
pressing challenges. This is Google’s first
Challenge in India and only its second
overall.
Google’s Global Impact Awards support
entrepreneurial non-profits using technology to tackle some of the world’s toughest
problems. Previous awardees have developed projects ranging from technology
that allowed under-privileged students
to access maths and science education to
real-time sensors that help ensure people
have better access to clean water.
“I have had the privilege of
working with budding inventors for many years, and
I know India’s entrepreneurs
are some of the biggest and
boldest thinkers in the world.
Today I’m thrilled to be part of
a new tech-oriented, venture
model that will support our
country’s amazing engine of
social entrepreneurs, identifying and backing the best technology ideas to improve the
lives of millions.”
Ram Shriram
Judge and Google
board member
CSR of Coal Companies, 80%
Budget to be Spent in Local Area
N
EW DELHI : The Department of Public Enterprises
erative Society, Infrastructure Support, Heritage sites
Minister further said that the Department of Public
(DPE), had framed the CSR guidelines, based on
in the CSR purview ensuring involvement of emEnterprises (DPE) had framed the CSR guidelines in
which, Coal India Ltd. (CIL) formulated a Corporate Soployee’s representatives in this Project, Empowerment
2010 and as per CSR policy, the budget allocation for
cial Responsibility (CSR) policy and provided funds to
of women for education, health & self-employment,
CSR increased tremendously. However, the CIL and
the tune of 5% of retained earnings of previous year
Adoption of village for carrying out the activities
its subsidiaries were not geared to utilize the funds
subject to minimum of Rs. 5 per tons of coal production
like infrastructural development e.g. road, water supwithin the financial year commensurate with higher
for subsidiaries & 2.5% for CIL. The criteria for spendply, electricity and community center etc. The details
allocation. Besides, the CSR projects are to be impleing funds under CSR. cover the economically backward
of amount utilized during last three years for the develmented by specialized agencies. In order to quantify
and needy section of the society living in different
opment of the surrounding villages by CIL & its subsidithe impact made by CSR activities, baseline data had
parts of India. For Carrying out CSR activities, 80% of
aries is given below.
to be compiled by conducting baseline survey before
the budgeted amount should be spent within the rastart of a project. The above formalities took time redius of 25 km of the projects or mines and 20%
sulting in slow utilization of funds. However, the
Company
2010-11
2011-12
2012-13
2013-14
(Up
to
of the budget would be spent on CSR activities
unutilized fund for 2011-12 was carried over to
June) (Fig in Rs.
within the State or States in which the Subsidithe next financial year. Further, CIL has taken
Crs.)
ary companies are operating. For CIL (HQ) CSR
measures to step up utilization of CSR funds
should be broadly executed in the areas, which
in the current year. A separate Cell in CIL, HQ.
ECL
04.74
13.14
09.42
0.35
are beyond the jurisdiction of subsidiary comas well as its subsidiaries has been established
BCCL
03.15
05.53
07.43
01.73
panies. This information was given by the Minisunder senior level executives of the Company.
CCL
10.98
11.00
13.66
02.08
ter of State for Coal, Pratik Prakash Bapu Patil in
For monitoring of CSR activities the Committee
WCL
07.12
07.85
20.96
02.33
a written reply in Lok Sabha on August 13, 2013.
comprising of Board Level Directors have been
formulated at CIL, H.Q and its subsidiaries sepaSECL
15.70
17.66
46.63
14.71
Minister said that as per CIL’s CSR policy, the narately. CIL has entered into a Memorandum of
MCL
53.45
14.47
25.56
17.19
ture of work on which CSR funds are being utiUnderstanding (MOU) with Tata Institute of Solized include Education, Water Supply including
NCL
04.35
09.25
17.64
03.84
cial Science (TISS), A National CSR Hub for exdrinking water, Health care by providing Indoor
CMPDIL
00.19
00.49
01.06
0.00
tending assistance in implementing CSR activimedical facilities and medicine, Sports and culCIL & NEC
08.71
02.59
07.19
53.13
ties for CIL and its subsidiaries.
ture, Social Empowerment, Infrastructure for
Total
108.42
82.00
149.55
95.36
Village Electricity, Solar Light, Pawan Chaki. Etc.,
Generation of employment & setting up Co-opCSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
Success Story
Vedanta has so far formed more than 1180 such Self-Help-Groups and the company is
further scaling up the project to bring in more rural and tribal women so that they can be
socio- economically empowered.
11
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Women Entrepreneurs of Rural India
Rural women out to make mark in Indian market with
their art and craft through Vedanta Self-Help-Groups
A tribal woman of Lanjigarh, Kada Majhi from village Kinari who has been trained by Vedanta in stitching and
tailoring sends her children to DAV Vedanta International School now. Vedanta also provided her a sewing machine and now she is able to earn about Rs. 2000 pm. In Lanjigarh area itself, 260 tribal women have been trained
in various skills.
‘‘
Women in rural and
tribal India live a life
that requires social and
economic upliftment.
As the women are core
of family system in India, it is important for
the rural society, like
in urban society, that
she should not only be
educated but also socially and economically
empowered.
‘‘
M
ost of these rural women were illiterate. Vedanta arranged their
adult-education classes in the villages to make them
capable of maintaining itinerary
of their own products. Initially,
Vedanta’s team helped them in
linkages but a situation has come
when these women have become
independent and they handle
their ledger book and accounts with
banks themselves. Shahnaz is one of
the 14,870 rural and tribal women
who have been able to support their
families by joining Vedanta’s SHGs.
A tribal woman of Lanjigarh, Kada Majhi from village Kinari who has been
trained by Vedanta in stitching and
tailoring sends her children to DAV
Vedanta International School now.
Vedanta also provided her a sewing
machine and now she is able to earn
about Rs.2000 pm. In Lanjigarh area
itself, 260 tribal women have been
trained in various skills.
Tamil Nadu is also not behind. Lalitha
from the state says, ‘I and my mother
and sister are members of Jasmine
self-help-group (SHG) and had interest in saree decoration skills, like
embroidery etc. and Vedanta besides providing training also linked
us with the local textile shops. Now,
we are able to earn about Rs. 4000 to
5000 pm. About 750 such women are
working in various Self-Help-Groups
formed by Vedanta Group company
MALCO in Tamil Nadu.
In Tuticorin where Vedanta has copper plant, Juliet Suganthi showed
interest in painting work. She joined
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
State
Rajasthan
Chhattisgarh
Odisha
Tamil Nadu
Goa
Zambia
Company
Hindustan Zinc
BALCO
Vedanta Aluminium Ltd
MALCO, Sterlite Copper
SESA Goa
Konkola Copper Mines
‘Nachithiram SHG’ and went for training in fashion jewellery. She now
makes chains, necklace, rings and
other items to sell in the market.
Similarly, Shanti Kanwar of Chhattisgarh is a member of ‘Sarvmangla
SHG’ formed by the group company
BALCO. Shanti has been linked with
rice milling and flour making unit.
Girja Saarthi, a member of ‘Mahamaya SHG’ is engaged in paper plate
making unit. Girja says, ‘we started
getting orders for our product from
the day we started operating the
unit. BALCO, besides forming our
group also gave us financial support
and helped us getting the orders.
Now, we are directly linked with market.’ Like Girja and Shanti, about 325
women are working in various SHGs
and earning about Rs. 5000 pm.
Not just in India, in the States of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu,
Goa and Orissa, Vedanta has organised Self-Help-Groups even in Zambia where the group has Konkola
Copper Mines.
A number of NGOs across India and
banks like HDFC, Indian Bank, Indian
Overseas Bank, State Bank of Bikaner
and Jaipur and State Bank of India
have come forward for providing fi-
nancial assistance to the members
of Self-Help-Groups.
Vedanta has so far formed more
than 1180 such Self-Help-Groups
and the company is further scaling
up the project to bring in more rural and tribal women so that they
can be socio- economically empowered. Today, these women are business women of rural India and are
out to make mark in Indian market
with their art & craft and their skills
in handicraft, embroidery, terracotta,
tailoring, saree decoration, jewelry
making, mushroom cultivation, poultry, goat husbandry, puffed rice processing, leaf plate-making, fish-farming, phenyl making, incense sticks/
agarbati making, beauty parlor, typing institute, gold covering, oil sales,
birds rearing, to name a few.
When Shahnaz Hussain lost her husband 15 years ago, her life had come
to a standstill. The thought of completing education of her 2 children
and sustaining respectable livelihood
almost dragged her into depression.
This simple house-hold woman of
village Bichhdi in Rajasthan had no
financial support and the future
looked uncertain. Speaking to fellow
women of her village, for her sustainable livelihood, she came in touch
with a Self-Help-Group ‘Jai Hind’ a
women empowerment project by Vedanta Group in rural India. Shahnaz
joined the group and was provided
stitching and tailoring training by Vedanta Group Company in Rajasthan,
Hindustan Zinc. Her determination to
get her children educated and have
a sustainable livelihood made her an
active member of the group.
Women in rural and tribal India live a
life that requires social and economic
upliftment. As the women are core of
family system in India, it is important
for the rural society, like in urban society, that she should not only be educated but also socially and economically empowered. With this thought,
Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Group started
Self-Help-Groups in rural India in
2006. Each Self-Help-Group needed
to have about 10-15 women who
would be provided relevant training
according to the needs and interest
and would be linked with market for
selling the products and also with
banks for financing the raw material.
“The larger challenge has been to convince the rural women to
spare time and join the groups. The rural system has its own challenges in terms of the social system. The support of family members for the women becomes the vital point. Vedanta group representatives need to convince not just the women in question but
also the family members and make them understand as how her
empowerment will bring prosperity to the entire family as well.
Once they came together, they started working like a strong team
where they extended helping hand to each other and ensured
their SHG comes out with best of products.”
Pavan Kaushik,
Head - Corporate Communication
Vedanta Group
Article
The purpose of the corporation must be redefined as creating shared value, not just profit
per se. This will drive the next wave of innovation and productivity growth in the global
economy. It will also reshape capitalism and its relationship to society.
12
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
The Corporate Paradigm Shift
for Creating Shared Values
By Akanksha Sharma
Capitalism is an unparalleled vehicle for meeting human needs, improving efficiency, creating jobs, and building wealth.
But a narrow conception of capitalism has prevented business from harnessing its full potential to meet society’s broader
challenges.
The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility has been debated for years. The general understanding of policy makers is that
every firm must ensure a balance between
business and society. With the increasing response of the shareholders towards the underlying business philosophy, Corporate Social Responsibility is today being considered
as the commitment of business to contribute to sustainable economic development,
working with employees, environmental responsibility, local community and society at
large to add value in all spheres of influence.
Over the years, the stakeholder engagement with the business and by the business
has grown substantially, making business to
effectively engage all significant groups of
stakeholders ensuring smooth business operations.
Moreover, changes in the global context
catalyzed the chain reaction for taking corporate responsibility to a new level. Moving
from the era of Milton
Friedman who has defined the subject as
Capitalism is an
“the social responsiof business is to
unparalleled vehicle bility
make profits”, to the
age where businesses
for meeting human
across the global are
professing organizaneeds, improving
tional culture develefficiency, creating
opment for creating
shared values, both
jobs, and building
businesses and the sowealth. But a narrow called concept of CSR
have witnessed evoconception of capilution hand-in-hand.
by merely
talism has prevented Precursored
profit-making
rapid
industrializationto
the
business from harstage of obtaining
nessing its full poten- the lisence to operate
charity to the
tial to meet society’s through
present times of corpoadvancement tobroader challenges. rate
wards creating shared
values, “CSR” has travelled through various
experimental stages of
evolution.
‘‘
‘‘
Moving Beyond Trade-Offs
Businesses and society have been pitted
against each other for too long. In this journey of responsible evolution of businesses,
various schools of thoughts have played
significant roles.Profit- centric group of
economists have legitimized the idea that
to provide societal benefits, companies
must temper their economic success. In
neoclassical thinking, a requirement for social improvement—such as safety or hiring
the disabled—imposes a constraint on the
corporation. Adding a constraint to a firm
that is already maximizing profits, says the
theory, will inevitably raise costs and reduce
those profits.
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
A related concept, with the same conclusion, is the notion of externalities. Externalities arise when firms create social costs that
they do not have to bear, such as pollution.
Thus, society must impose taxes, regulations, and penalties so that firms “internalize” these externalities—a belief influencing
many policy decisions.
This perspective has also shaped the strategies of firms themselves, which have
largely excluded social and environmental
considerations from their economic thinking. Firms have taken the broader context
in which they do business as a given and
resisted regulatory standards as invariably
contrary to their interests. Anything more is
often seen by many as an irresponsible use
of shareholders’ money.
Blurring the Profit/
Nonprofit Boundary
The concept of shared value, in contrast,
recognises that societal needs, not just conventional economic needs, define markets.
It also recognizes that social harms or weaknesses frequently create internal costs for
firms—such as wasted energy or raw materials, costly accidents, and the need for
remedial training to compensate for inadequacies in education. And addressing societal harms and constraints does not necessarily raise costs for firms, because they can
innovate through using new technologies,
operating methods, and management approaches—and as a result, increase their
productivity and expand their markets.
Creating Shared Values
The corporate pandits have defined the
concept of Creating Shared Values in varied
forms but the most preferred definition lies
in developing a system of inclusive business
models.
A growing number of companies known
for their hard-nosed approach to business
have already embarked on important efforts to create shared value by reconceiving the intersection between society and
corporate performance. Yet our recognition
of the transformative power of shared value
is still in its genesis. Realizing it will require
leaders and managers to develop new skills
and knowledge—such as a far deeper appreciation of societal needs, a greater understanding of the true bases of company
productivity, and the ability to collaborate
across profit/nonprofit boundaries. And
government must learn how to regulate in
ways that enable shared value rather than
work against it.
Capitalism is an unparalleled vehicle for
meeting human needs, improving efficiency, creating jobs, and building wealth. But
a narrow conception of capitalism has prevented business from harnessing its full potential to meet society’s broader challenges.
The moment for a new conception of capitalism is now; society’s needs are large and
growing, while customers, employees, and a
new generation of young people are asking
business to step up.
The purpose of the corporation must be
redefined as creating shared value, not just
profit per se. This will drive the next wave of
innovation and productivity growth in the
global economy. It will also reshape capitalism and its relationship to society. Perhaps
most important of all, learning how to create shared value is our best chance to legitimize business again.
The Evolving
Corporate Behavior
Corporates all over the globe are gradually
evolving from the typical mindset of doing
mere philanthropy on the name of CSR to
the value added approach of have programmatic outlook towards the business case of
CSR. This approach endeavors to create values shared by not only business and business associates but also by the society at
large.
Besides this, the increasing trend of Advertising CSR amongst stakeholders is a true
catalyst for the evolving corporate behavior
towards CSR. Now, companies do not want
to show case the ‘good work they do’ as an
extended responsibility towards society but
understanding the stakeholder expectations CSR is now advertised as a pure case of
‘Shared Value Proposition’. The recent development at the government front has further
added fuel to this trend.
The Ripple Effect
towards Inclusive Growth
More and more companies are now evolving from the narrow view of value creation
and are taking the lead in bringing business
and society back together. The recognition
is there among sophisticated business and
thought leaders, and promising elements of
a new model are emerging. Yet we still lack
an overall framework for guiding these efforts, and most companies remain stuck in
a “social responsibility” mind-set in which
societal issues are at the periphery, not the
core.
The solution lies in the principle of shared
value, which involves creating economic
value in a way that also creates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges.
Businesses must reconnect company success with social progress. Shared value is not
social responsibility, philanthropy, or even
sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success and inclusive growth.
Akanksha Sharma is the Manager- CSR &
Sustainability at Jubilant FoodWorks Limited.
Article
If you plan to develop a purpose-driven social brand and do a lot of cause-marketing, then
develop a policy which deals with many of the above issues.
13
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Cause-Related Marketing:
The Right Direction ?
By Monaem Ben Lellahom
Monaem Ben Lellahom is a pioneer and thought leader in Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (CSR) practices in the Arab region. Monaem is co-founder and Head of Sustainability consultancy services at Sustainable
Square Consultancy and Think Tank. He was the first Social Return on Investment (SROI) practitioner in the Arab
world to master social impact measurement and has authored research reports to demonstrate the social value
of community development work through SROI analysis. Monaem also focuses on developing sustainability
strategies for organizations across various industries, conducting gap analysis and studying Socio-economic
(SEIA) progress in various issues. He has extensive knowledge of Sustainable Value Chains and Product Transparency, and the linkages between Sustainability and Branding.
I
n their ever increasing need to differentiate themselves, many companies are turning to the use of causerelated marketing. Decades ago, if
you dropped the phrase “cause-related
marketing” in the meeting room, your
colleagues would most likely return an
empty stare.
Historically, “Marketing 1.0” was a productfocused
enterprise
born of the Industrial
Peter Duckers Once
Revolution, and “Marketing 2.0” was a cussaid, “profit is not
tomer-focused effort
leveraging
insights
the purpose of a
gained from informabusiness but rather
tion technology, and
now with “Marketing
the test of its valid3.0”, Philip Kotler came
ity.” I will take that a
to confirm that marlatest incarstep further: The real keting’s
nation must engage
indicator of measurpeople in ways that
provide “solutions to
ing the success of
their anxieties to make
the globalized world a
a sales force is not
better place”. It is a givmaking profit. It is
en fact that consumers believe companies
the test of its added
have obligations bevalue and effectiveyond making money
their owners. In
ness to the customer. for
fact, it is getting more
difficult for a company
to connect with customers and prosper if
it does not stand for something more
than its financial bottom line.
‘‘
‘‘
Consumers Prefer Causes
The 2013 Cone Global Cause Evaluation Survey shows that 55% of surveyed customers
have boycotted a company because of irresponsible business practices. 53% would
NOT invest in a company that does not actively support a good cause.
When choosing between two companies
with similar products that engaged in cause
marketing, 70% of those surveyed cited
“personal relevance of cause” as the reason
they chose one company over another. On
another note, 76% think it is ok for brands
to support good causes and make money at
the same time.
According to a new research presented at
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
the World Federation of Advertisers’ annual
conference in Brussels, global marketers surveyed overwhelmingly said that CSR will be
increasingly important in building brands in
the future, with 88% agreeing with that statement. However, only 46% of those marketers
thought that consumers share and approve
their support for good causes. When in fact
60% of consumers surveyed claimed to be
looking for brands with a sense of purpose.
Companies are asking the following questions every day: Should we stand for a purpose or continue doing traditional marketing? How do we optimize our purpose-driven
marketing investments? Can being socially
responsible be used as a messaging strategy
in our marketing campaigns to help increase
revenue?
American Express Starts a
Trend
The concept of cause-related marketing was
first introduced in 1983 by American Express
to describe its campaign to raise money for
the Statue of Liberty’s restoration. American
Express donated one cent to the restoration
every time someone used its charge card.
As a result, the number of new cardholders
grew by 45%, and card usage increased by
28%. Nowadays, there is an increasing number of companies introducing marketing
activities involving corporate efforts of business and non-profit organizations for mutual benefit. The market is seeing a flooding
number of new collaborations between corporates and NGOs in which their respective
assets are combined to create shareholder
and social value.
Businesses and Nonprofits
Must Align Their Stories
If you have ever purchased a product or service and felt good about it because it had
a little pink ribbon or a sustainability label
on it, you have likely been a consumer of a
cause marketing campaign. We have totally
changed the way we live our commercial
lives; we now invest more of our minds,
hearts and spirits. We keep searching for solutions that bring value to us and let us feel
that we have a purpose in life. “Marketing 3.0
will be won by those who become purposedriven social brands” explains Philip Kotler
in Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit, and to do so, businesses and non-profits must align to bring a
cohesive brand story to life. Companies are
increasingly turning to purpose-driven marketing with the hope of cultivating loyalty
among their key customers. Sure, consumers are happy to help save the world and
be more responsible. But they must first see
the benefit to their own households. When
going through the process of developing
purpose-driven social brands, companies
have to make sure that there is a win-win situation between customers and the charity.
This is achieved when customers feel their
livesare enhanced by the charity efforts and
that good feeling is transferred to how they
feel about the market.
Cause Marketing: The Right
Direction?
Despite compelling data however, lots of
businesses are still indecisive on whether it
is the right direction to take and whether is
it the right time to start investing. “As marketers, we spend billions of dollars each year
trying to understand consumers all over
the world. Unfortunately, it is harder and
harder” Edward Martin, Director Marketing
Excellence and CSR Insights at The Hershey
Company. Therefore, it is time to understand
that only a minority of customers take time
to answer marketing surveys and ads. However, customers are more willing to engage
with companies on social causes and environmental issues. It is not a good way to get
into the customers’ minds? Try it once and
you will see the immediate result.
Peter Ducker once said, “Profit is not the
purpose of a business but rather the test
of its validity.” I will take that a step further:
The real indicator of measuring the success
of a sales force is not making profit. It is the
test of its added value and effectiveness to
the customer. We need to step back from
our conventional practices and take a larger
view of what connects us to build deeper
bases for purpose-driven engagement.
However, in order for these efforts to be effective, customers must feel that your efforts
are authentic and truly supporting a cause.
Businesses have to be transparent about
how they are distributing funds to the cause
and clearly outline the win-win solution the
product or the campaign is preaching for. If
you plan to develop a purpose-driven social
brand and do a lot of cause-marketing, then
develop a policy which deals with many of
the above issues.
Article
For most organisations, the cost of reporting in accordance with GRI will go up in the
short term, but will decrease over the long run because the new Materiality focus will lead
to more effective reporting and better return on investment for organisations who take
the time to do it properly.
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
14
GRI G4 – Is it worth it?
By Dwayne Baraka
Dwayne Baraka is a speaker, trainer and consultant in CSR and is expert in of corporate strategy. Mr Baraka’s background in corporate law has given him a solid understanding of the influence that corporations have on society
and his experience as Director at Business in the Community means his insights are grounded in practical implementation. His consultancy, valueCSR, has a burning focus on the business case for CSR.
T
he G4 will be a challenge for
many companies, but the challenges will bring a number of benefits: better embedded CSR, more
engaging CSR reports and better returns from CSR investments.
In reviewing the latest version of the
Global Reporting Initiative ( GRI),
three important criteria stand out as
competing for the attention of CSR
pundits, investors and others who
care about CSR: Transparency, Comparability and Materiality.
Transparency
‘‘
Big companies
have relied on
GRI’s Reporting
Standard to guide
them when writing
CSR reports. The
latest version, G4,
will change the reporting game and
make companies
more aware of the
commercial benefits of CSR.
Increased transparency means
greater trust from readers of CSR
reports. Previous versions of the
GRI has increased trust in business
through clearer reporting of issues
that concern many stakeholders. But
transparency doesn’t always mean
that the most important issues are
dealt with.
For many NGOs and other interested
society groups, the G4 reaches a lot
further into supply chains and levels of remuneration, and that seems
likely to be welcomed. However, the
G4 is likely to result in most companies reporting on a smaller number
of issues, which may frustrate some.
Comparability
Making reliable judgments on CSR
information published is easier if
reports are comparable. The common set of GRI metrics means that
information is often directly comparable between companies. The GRI
has thus far helped them by giving a
relatively ubiquitous framework.
The G4, in allowing companies to
generally report on less metrics, will
mean a decrease in comparability of
CSR reports.
‘‘
Materiality
Materiality is the degree to which
the issues covered by a company are
the most important ones. The GRI
has probably muddied materiality
waters until now.
The G4 has significantly increased
focus on materiality and especially
on companies reporting how they
derive their most important issues.
Transparency, Comparability, Materiality – FIGHT!
Each of the three areas are inherently in conflict with each other. A focus
on Materiality will decrease comparability because it will reduce the
number of metrics common across
all companies. It also has potential
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
for reduction of overall transparency
and comparability, because ‘nonmaterial’ issues might not be included in a report. The SRI community is
desperately trying to connect CSR to
corporate performance and presumably welcome the help they will get
in identifying the most important
CSR issues for companies.
Companies have long argued that
Transparency is all well and good,
but that GRI compliance causes
them to waste resources on issues
that didn’t really matter. Conversely,
many NGOs have argued that GRI
compliance doesn’t go far enough
– they want more information and
further into the supply chain than
GRI had previously delivered. As a
general rule, transparency will not
be useful for materiality, but will often increase comparability.
An increase in Comparability generally increases transparency, but may
reduce the effectiveness of identifying the most material issues. Comparability requires an exhaustive list
of metrics or clear consensus for all
concerned about what the comparable issues should be. Little consensus of that type exists, although GRI
and SASB are trying to achieve sector specific metrics.
G4’s focus on materiality will result
in longer discussion of issues that
matter the most. That will use more
resources, but deliver higher quality
outcomes. The return on resources
invested in the G4 will deliver different result to different organisations.
Simple Organisations
For simple organisations, the G4 will
probably result in shorter reports
with a clearer focus. CSR Reports will
reach deeper into the most important issues through the greater focus
on impact and consequent reach
into supply chains.
Complex Organisations
For complex organisations, we will
probably see longer reports, because they will need to discuss materiality on a strategic-unit basis,
which may mean different issues
need to be addressed based on variation in business model, customer
base and operational strategy. For
some organisations, they will need
to have multiple discussions of the
same issue because of the different
operational contexts.
Controversial Organisations
For organisations which have controversial or significantly detrimental
impacts on society, they will prob-
ably suffer the worst of both worlds;
having to fully disclose all GRI metrics (due to expectations of certain
stakeholders) and identify their most
material impacts. Those organisations are likely to bemoan the GRI
changes because they will need to
greatly increase the resources needed to meet their social expectations
and conform to the highest GRI and
disclosure standards.
Conclusions
The focus on Materiality is a very
good way to make the GRI relevant
for the mid-term. It gives organisations the chance and an excuse to revise their views on CSR and to work
out more specifically what the arguments are for and against particular
CSR measures. It is also likely to result in more focus on performance
targets and greater measurability.
Many organisations have underachieved on those and I think the G4
will be a much needed shot in the
arm.
It also increases the transparency of
the most material issues, which has
potential to bring the SRI and broader investment communities closer to
business. It will also mean that more
companies will talk about the financial return of CSR initiatives, just like
they do in relation to other parts of
their business. As a result, CSR programmes will be better embedded
and drive a new round of value creation from CSR- thinking.
For most organisations, the cost of
reporting in accordance with GRI
will go up in the short term, but
will decrease over the long run because the new Materiality focus will
lead to more effective reporting
and better return on investment
for organisations who take the time
to do it properly. For organisations
who try to fake the Materiality stuff
(and there will be more than a few
of those), they are probably in for a
long-term increase in costs and run
the risk of being targeted for lack of
transparency and honesty and also
of disenfranchising investors in the
medium term.
In summary, the G4 will be easy for
companies that have taken integrating CSR into their business seriously
(or who will do so now) but will increase overall costs for not much
benefit for companies that don’t.
Dwayne Baraka blogs at
www.dwaynebaraka.com/blog,
where this article was first published.
E-mail - dwayne.baraka@yahoo.co.uk
Article
The government responded with pleas to companies to maintain Bangladesh as their
playground even as it did nothing to address factory safety or land supply for the garment
sector in the 2013-14 budget.
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
15
Bangladesh – The Difference
Between Policy and Action
By Radhika Mehrotra
Radhika Mehrotra : As an Analyst- Stakeholder Engagement at Solaron Sustainability Services Pvt. Ltd. since October 2012, Radhika Mehrotra is responsible for incorporating Solaron’s proprietary ‘stakeholder engagement’
component of company research and rating services in Emerging Markets. A post graduate from the esteemed
Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India, Radhika started out as a Research Intern at ATLMRI Research
and Policy Advocacy Programme, Mumbai. She has also worked as a Product Head at the Centre for Monitoring
Indian Economy (CMIE), Mumbai. She was instrumental in spearheading research and analysis for two of CMIE’s
flagship databases.
T
‘‘
On 24 April 2013, an
eight-story commercial building, Rana
Plaza, collapsed in
Savar, a sub-district
in the Greater Dhaka
Area, the capital of
Bangladesh. The
search for the dead
ended on 13 May
with the death toll
of 1,129. Approximately 2,500 injured
people were rescued
from the building
alive. Bangladesh is
the second largest
garment exporter
of the world after
China, controlling
about 20 per cent of
the total US apparel
import with a dramatic share increase
in the recent years.
here has been enough and more
said on the Rana Plaza collapse
and the absence of a regulatory framework, poor corporate monitoring of large supply chains,
cheap labor and the ensuing price wars
between countries, contractors and laborers; and of course consumer activism. While all of these are valid causal
factors, none are revelations. What
stands apart this time, is that while accountability was accepted rather grudgingly by a majority of the global retailers found churning out the latest trends
from the debris of the Rana Plaza, most
wax eloquent about their sustainable
endeavors in consistent annual reports.
The natural consequence is a compromise on worker safety. Data provided
by the International Labor Rights Forum
confirms this with 1,800 worker fatalities recorded since 2005, all attributed
to factory collapses and fires. The culmination of this deep negligence was the
Rana Plaza collapse in April 2013 where
obvious structural faults were ignored
so that daily production targets were
uncompromised.
The government responded with pleas
to companies to maintain Bangladesh
as their playground even as it did nothing to address factory safety or land supply for the garment sector in the 201314 budget. Meanwhile, the Bangladesh
Garment Manufacturers & Exporters
Association has stated over other things
a rise in cost of production (mainly due
to exchange rate fluctuations) that has
marginalized incomes and logically led
to a fall in compliance related spending.
Companies like Disney, Levi Strauss and
Target are seeking to withdraw licenses
while some are making amends.
PVH Corp and German retailer Tchibo
have signed a binding agreement to ban
sub-contracting at high risk facilities, finance renovations & fire safety training
and make audit results available to the
public. The much delayed Accord on Fire
& Building safety has been signed by 40
major retailers and may finally see the
light of day. Clearly, the onus of dignity
& safety of Bangladeshi labor rests on
the responsible business practices of
companies.
‘‘
An analysis of H&M and Walmart, the
largest buyers of garments manufactured in Bangladesh, reveals gaps in implementation and the liberty to default
on commitments in a weak regulatory
environment. H&M–With a presence in
43 countries, H&M has multiple sustainCSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
ability commitments including organic
raw materials, stringent targets on water consumption and model factories in
Bangladesh. For its 785 suppliers, H&M
monitors factory compliance, provides
training for suppliers & their workers
and promotes social dialogue through
multiple associations such as Better
Work, the Fair Labor Association and the
Fair Wage Network.
The company acknowledges second
and third tier sub-contracting and states
that its 148 ‘strategic partners’ who account for 53% of production, can own
and subcontract work to multiple factories. The company has successfully
conducted 2,646 audits till date for all its
suppliers. Additionally, with a focus on
Bangladesh, the company has provided
more than 100,000 workers and middle
managers with training in fire and safety. Supplier factories are required to conduct electrical assessment as well, with
costs shared by the company.
Overall, the company states a collaborative and exhaustive system to ensure
sustainability in its supply chain. However, the scope of these exercises is limited to first-tier suppliers. Only 58 audits
covered second-tier suppliers.
Similarly, only 30 of 747 head audits and
28 of 1,779 follow up audits checked on
second-tier suppliers. In Bangladesh, a
majority of the 5,400 factories are second and third tier suppliers. Implementation is negated by ground experiences
as well.
In March 2010, structural faults led to a
fire and 21 fatalities at the Garib & Garib factory. The company had reported
compliance with its ‘Code of Conduct’
and health & safety audits conducted
five months prior concluded no serious
drawbacks. Similar discrepancies in audit results and actualities emerged recently.
A factory owner in Ashulia who supplies
exclusively to H&M stressed on complete compliance with fire and safety
requirements, even as all fire exits were
bolted shut. In May 2013, the company
reconfirmed a satisfactory health & safety audit for the unit.
Unfortunately for H&M, its operations in
Cambodia followed suit. A factory collapse in May had the company absolve
itself of responsibility citing unapproved
sub-supplier linkages; surprising, since
Cambodian workers have been striking
since 2012 against inadequate wages
and poor conditions of work.
Wal-Mart- As the common link between
the Tazreen Factory fire in November
2012 and the Rana Plaza collapse in
April 2013, Walmart can no longer avoid
addressing its health & safety norms. In
both cases, the company was found to
be operating from grossly unsafe factories. In both cases, the company has distanced itself from suppliers, citing the
much abused complex subcontracting
web. It continues to make its supplier
policy more stringent – with limited action on its part. Walmart’s response to
the two accidents directs accountability
to the suppliers. From three chances earlier, suppliers will now face a ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy regarding undisclosed subcontracting. Statements from Walmart’s
management circulating in media
sources make the company sound like
a victim of shoddy suppliers as opposed
to an active stakeholder. Rajan Kamalanathan, Walmart’s vice president of ethical sourcing stated “We want the right
accountability and ownership to be in
the hands of the suppliers” and that “We
are placing our orders in good faith.”
The company on its part failed to sign up
to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety. A shareholder proposal by a former
Bangladeshi factory worker to comply
with the Accord and ensure more transparent and timely action for its supply
chain was voted down by the Board in
June 2013.
Serious gaps mark the company’s performance as well. The Tazreen Factory
was audited in May 2011 with ‘higher
risk violations’ even as media reports
point out that five licensers continued to
source work to Tazreen in 2012. The Ethical Sourcing Program document dated
January 2012 has detailed guidelines
that enable factories to comply with environmental and social sourcing. Among
other things, it directs suppliers to disclose all factories and sub-contractors
involved in the manufacturing process.
Walmart then determines the scope and
nature of audits. Costs are to be borne
by suppliers, placing the financial and
execution liability of sustainability on its
suppliers. Further, Walmart’s disclosure
processes are carried out on-line, guaranteeing global access but not guaranteeing coverage in poverty-ridden
Bangladesh with internet access limited
to only 3.5% of the population.
Interview
16
The biggest drawback of our sector is the lack of regulation and organization. We work
in an imperfect environment. Though the things are changing now but it will take some
more time for them to be in perfect state.
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Education is the Key to
Lead a Dignified Life
By Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder & Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation
In an exclusive interview with CSR & COMPETITIVENESS , Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder Executive Trustee,
Smile Foundation shared about his work and passion towards Social Venture Philanthropy (SVP) model.
Smile Foundation works on the subjects of education, healthcare, livelihood and women empowerment
through 158 projects operational across 25 states in India. Through the SVP model, Smile Foundation
makes an effort to broad base investment in order to maximize its reach and optimize returns by approaching and strengthening a large number of like-minded individuals and organizations globally.
The realization of a group of young corporate professionals, that it was their Social Responsibility to give
back to the society, laid the foundation of Smile. In the
early 90’s when liberalization happened, we were the
first ones to get the fruit of success beyond expectation. My needs were limited. The very thought of doing
something beyond just professional gain haunted me
always. I brought in a group of likeminded friends to
start discussing what and how to do something which
can impact maximum lives with our limited understanding and resources.
What are the various social projects initiated by Smile Foundation in India?
Since 2002 Smile Foundation has been working on the
subjects of education for children, livelihood for the
youth, healthcare in rural villages and urban slums,
women empowerment and sensitization of the privileged masses through programmes- Mission Education- the education programme for underprivileged
children, Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP) –
the livelihood programme for underprivileged youth,
SWABHIMAN- a Programme on girl child & women empowerment and Smile on Wheels (SoW) – innovative
mobile hospital programme.
How the project is serving the community?
Smile Foundation believes that education is the key
to lead a dignified life. It enables an individual to become conscious about his rights, enables him to make
informed choices. When we talk about empowerment
it starts with education.
In our child education programme ‘Mission Education’
we focus on bringing the children to the remedial and
bridge course centres, provide them an enjoyable and
effective learning, avail them with basic healthcare
and also nutrition. Most of the children come from
parents who have never been to school. Hence the basic awareness about the need to go to school is missing. Secondly, they cannot take the first step towards
school. So we need to sensitize and mobilize the whole
communities for sending their non-school going children to our centres. Then comes making the children
continue studying in the centres, learn effectively and
then mainstreaming them into government and public schools. Today many of our children are studying in
reputed schools across India.
What do you think of India govt emphasis
on child education and rights?
Government no doubt is doing its best but everything
cannot be left on laws and government alone. India is a
big country with different demographics. Government
can make laws and bring acts like RTE but taking them
to people cannot be done by government alone.
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
Right To Education (RTE) has provisions which can help
in getting more and more children to school. But there
is a major gap of awareness and enactment in terms
of RTE. A majority of underprivileged population does
not even know that there is something like RTE for
them. For this civil society needs to be active to spread
the reach and awareness of acts like RTE. The privileged
section of our society should be proactive everything
cannot be left on law or government alone.
The Smile Foundation calls itself a ‘Social
Venture Philanthropist’ (SVP). Could you
please elaborate a bit on that?
Social Venture philanthropy is one of the working
model of Smile Foundation. It is based on the model of
venture capital. Under the Social Venture Philanthropy
(SVP) model, Smile Foundation identifies handholds
and builds capacities of genuine grassroots NGOs to
achieve accountability, sustainability, scalability, leadership. Through the SVP model, Smile Foundation
makes an effort to broad base investment in order to
maximize its reach and optimize returns by approaching and strengthening a large number of like-minded
individuals and organizations globally.
What is the motivation behind producing child feature film “I am Kalam”. Kindly
Share the achievement of the film.
‘I am Kalam’, was an astounding success with the film
travelling to over 30 countries and winning 22 national and international awards. With “I am Kalam” Smile
Foundation advocated the cause of Sending Every
Child to School. The story of a child daring to dream
and surpassing the boundaries of reality won not
just awards but accolades from the general audience
across the world. With ‘I am Kalam’ we had stepped into
the film genre. It sensitizes the civil society towards the
plight of poor and their importance in helping them to
lead a better life.
What are your future plans for the year
2013?
My future vision is to bring good and sustainable
changes in lives of as many people as possible. Smile
Foundation would like to develop and promote good
governance in the sector more intensely in near future.
Application of technology in achieving efficiency and
cutting cost would another area we are already working and it would be developed further. Thirdly, sharing
the learning and knowledge in real time with similar
development organisations both in India and in similar countries internationally would be something we
would like to pursue further. Making the civil society
members as partners in change in every developmental initiative locally is another future objective.
What kind of challenges you are facing to
implement to social projects?
In development sector, input is not always equal to the
output. There are so many subjective processes and
outputs which one needs to understand and appreciate.
The biggest drawback of our sector is the lack of regulation and organization. We work in an imperfect environment. Though the things are changing now but
it will take some more time for them to be in perfect
state. In our country giving culture is not so inclined
towards development work. So aligning people with
resources and the needs have always been a challenge
since the inception. This sector had been struggling
with trust deficiency so changing the perception of
people is another major task which we face.
How do you measure Social Impact of the
projects implemented?
Smile Foundation always believes in and follows good
governance. We monitor our work both internally and
externally. Internally we have an in bill process and a
review is done on monthly, quarterly and annually basis. Smile also engages external evaluators to understand, evaluate our programmes, methodology and
the impact of our work. We not only get the evaluation
done for our work internally and externally but also do
course corrections and improvements in order to reach
out to as many people as possible in a better way.
‘‘
Social Venture philanthropy is one of the working model of Smile Foundation. It is based on the
model of venture capital.
Under the Social Venture Philanthropy (SVP)
model, Smile Foundation
identifies handholds and
builds capacities of genuine grassroots NGOs to
achieve accountability,
sustainability, scalability,
leadership.
‘‘
Brief us about the historical background of
Smile Foundation and its mission.
Article
The potential for big businesses to engage in the social delivery sector via social enterprises opens a huge opportunity for such businesses.
17
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Innovation as Corporate
Social Responsibility
By Shailaja D Sharma
‘‘
The focus on innovation –
via social enterprise and via
technology incubation – in the
Companies Bill is not a chance
event. If businesses take this
opportunity to switch their
CSR focus from transactional
and PR-led activities to strategic, risk-alleviating and
option-generating activities,
this would lead to the flow
of a substantial and muchneeded fund into areas that
will increasingly be critical for
business sustainability.
‘‘
C
SR or Corporate Social Responsibility has been practised for many reasons and does not necessarily provide
benefits to society, or in fact even to
the company. Money spent on various
causes may well have been deemed to
have ‘gone down the drain’ – the actions funded often having but a transient presence in the targeted audiences’ consciousness and in the world.
Internationally, the debate has moved
from whether companies should undertake CSR to what they should do
by way of addressing the need for
business sustainability. In this context,
CSR is thus perceived more as an act of
self-preservation than of charity, and
is focused on regulatory compliance
– on environmental compliance, occupational health and safety standards,
business ethics and corporate governance – on the one hand, and active risk
management via stakeholder engagement on the other.
In India, government has made it clear
that it expects that all large companies
will undertake activities that can be
classified as CSR. In other words, government is making it mandatory for
companies to pick up a part of the developmental burden, especially while
businesses experience growth and
economic expansion. While this government fiat has mixed implications,
the main negative implication being
the undermining of the voluntary,
unilateral and business-determined
character of CSR, there are also some
interesting and positive fall-outs. The
main positive result is that companies
are being gently nudged and prodded
to take a serious look at (among others)
innovation – as a business responsibility.
Formulating CSR objectives in line
with national development goals helps
channelize otherwise sub-optimal
resource-flows into defined domains
of national importance. Government
has included traditional activities such
as health and education in the ambit
of CSR, allowing companies to continue to perform charitable works in
these areas, and claim the benefits of
being CSR-compliant. However, by inCSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
The potential for big businesses to engage in the social
delivery sector via social enterprises opens a huge opportunity for such businesses. It will then be necessary
for companies to identify the right sort of partnerships
and platforms, whereby the opportunity can be best
exploited in the interests of sustainable development.
cluding items such as social enterprise
and technology incubation in the ambit of CSR, government has definitely
opened an important new channel to
tap these funds. Government is urging lethargic businesses to focus their
attention on these two areas – which
can be developed only by business
enterprises. By definition, social enterprises target important developmental
objectives, but carry high risks as businesses, because they serve people with
lower paying capacity and are often
based on untested business models.
Often they are experimental in nature,
small in scale and undertaken by individuals with an idea but little else. In
India, social enterprises have taken up
all kinds of causes, from garbage segregation and recycling, to health services and skill-building, IT services and
renewable energy.
Social enterprises routinely describe
shortages of operating cash and distributor and warehousing networks,
lack of brand-image, inability to raise
loans for their customers, and lack of
business and marketing know-how
as inhibitors of growth. Their last-mile
focus is at odds with their scale-up
aspirations. These are areas where association and partnership with large
companies can be beneficial.
Large businesses on the other hand
increasingly recognise the rural sector and social enterprise as a source of
sustainable businesses and business
models. They would like to be involved,
but do not wish to invest heavily – both
in terms of resources and shareholder
attention. Incidentally, these concerns
are also true of other types of CSR activities, except those which directly
address the firm’s business risks. Allow-
ing companies to fulfil their CSR obligations by investing and supporting
these enterprises offers a tremendous
opportunity for expansion of these social enterprises and their impact and
for firms to legitimately direct some of
their time and resources towards this
important sector.
The potential for big businesses to engage in the social delivery sector via
social enterprises opens a huge opportunity for such businesses. It will then
be necessary for companies to identify
the right sort of partnerships and platforms, whereby the opportunity can
be best exploited in the interests of
sustainable development. Thus the opportunity comes with a suitable challenge. Business organisations shaping
the sustainability agenda can play an
important role in this regard.
Government has also indicated that
investments in recognised technology incubators will be considered as
execution of CSR. Engagement of the
business sector in technology development has lagged in India, making
us severely dependent on ideas and
technologies and indeed products
fashioned abroad. The underlying assumptions about the availability of energy and resources including materials,
land, water and labour, and about the
end-uses would be different when a
product is conceptualised and built in
industrialised societies, versus if it were
to be conceptualised and developed
from the start in India. Already certain
large Indian companies are staking
their claim in the innovation space –
but it will be when there is fierce competition in this space -- and when that
space becomes truly inclusive – that
we will see real innovation. It is there-
fore heartening that the Companies
Bill encourages companies to channel their CSR spends into this domain,
rather than pour it down the drain.
A sustainability challenge that cannot
be met purely by market forces with
or without regulatory support is the
cleantech sector, as also BOP (bottomof-pyramid) energy services. Another
area that could do with infusion of
additional funds and corporate attention is that of indigenous products and
services –e.g. indigenous architecture,
using locally available materials and
resources. Innovation is multiplied by
inclusion. Thus the provision of suitable rural/urban youth exchange programmes and apprenticeships – is an
area of great potential. Experimenting with new developmental concepts
such as community-based sustainability standards – would be another
interesting area for corporates who
wish to have a window on the future.
Channeling CSR funds towards a set of
such activities would be to truly fulfill
the national and developmental vision expressed in the provisions of the
Companies Bill, while steering businesses into strategic and forward looking pathways.
In sum, everywhere in the globe, CSR
or more generally business responsibility has been recognised as being closely linked to addressing social
needs sustain ably. Without innovation, businesses cannot hope to be
sustainable. The focus on innovation
– via social enterprise and via technology incubation – in the Companies Bill
is not a chance event. If businesses take
this opportunity to switch their CSR
focus from transactional and PR-led
activities to strategic, risk-alleviating
and option-generating activities, this
would lead to the flow of a substantial
and much-needed fund into areas that
will increasingly be critical for business
sustainability.
Shailaja D Sharma is a sustainability
specialist and an independent business and development consultant.
Social Innovation
The purpose of the corporation must be redefined as creating shared value, not just profit
per se. This will drive the next wave of innovation and productivity growth in the global
economy. It will also reshape capitalism and its relationship to society.
18
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Mahindru Foundation – Lighting up
Lives of Visually Impaired
With the vision of working towards total eradication of corneal blindness from the country, the Gurgaon-based NGO – Y.P. Mahindru Niramaya Eye Bank, under
Ashok Mahindru, has crossed the milestone of 1000 eye donations in 2012.
A
“We Plan to Open 50
Eye Banks all over India
to ensure that corneal
blindness is completely
wiped out from India.”
Ashok Mahindru
Chairman,
Mahindru Foundation
journey that began almost a decade back has lit up lives of thousands suffering from corneal
blindness. In the year 2005, Y.P. Mahindru
Niramaya Eye Bank and Cornea Transplant unit was set up at the Niramaya
Charitable Trust, an NGO founded and
run by a team of professionals. In 2004,
Late Shri Yashpal Mahindru along with his
son Ashok Mahindru guided a group of
motivated professionals with experience
in health and eye care to set up North
India’s first and largest private Eye bank
with a mission to provide ‘Quality Health
Care to the Rural and Urban Poor”. It is the
only government approved Eye Bank in
South Haryana which is registered with
Eye Bank Association of India. It follows
standard world class procedures and is
equipped with latest technology.
these corneas have been transplanted
by AIIMS, Delhi and PGIMS, Rohtak (Haryana) through an ongoing collaboration.
Y.P.Mahindru Niramaya Eye Bank Chairman, Ashok Mahindru, says, “India is
home to world’s largest visually impaired
population. Around 1,20,00,000 people are suffering from some kind of eye
problem. 80 % of them are suffering from
cataract or refractive errors which are curable through a normal medical process.”
“Remaining 2.1 million people are suffering from acute corneal blindness that can
only be eradicated through transplantation of corneas from eye donor, which
must be carried out within about 6 hours
before one breaths his/her last,” added
Mahindru.
On the occasion of their 1000th successful eye donation program, Ashok Mahindru said, “The journey has not stopped
here, rather it has just begun and I will
urge my fellow citizens to enlighten
someone’s world by donating your eyes.”
Underlining the problem with regards to
lack of eye donations, Ashok Mahindru
said, average number of eye donations
in India languishes at about 38,600 per
annum implying that even an impossible wait of 112 years will not help most.
On the other hand approximately 9 million people die every year and one pair
of eyes from a deceased person can be
implanted on two blind persons implying a potential of 1 Crore 80 Lakh corneal
transplants.”
ized free eye surgery/care camps for the
under privileged. Ashok Mahindru has
been taking forward his father’s vision by
expanding the footprint through Run for
Vision Foundation.
Founder of the Eye Bank, Late Shri
Y.P.Mahindru, father of Ashok Mahindru,
was a visionary philanthropist who believed that one gets deep inner satisfaction and happiness when one gets physically involved in philanthropy. Late Shri
Mahindru had worked for health care for
over 6 decades and had regularly organ-
Ashok Mahindru leads these initiatives
under the Mahindru Foundation (earlier known as Mahindru Charitable Trust)
and provides financial support to various
NGOs in eye care. The Trust is dedicated
to enlarge the footprint of awareness
campaigns for eye donation. The Foundation has been laid and now the plan is to
benefit the needy in the society. The eye
bank is planning to open 50 eye banks
across the country and provide free treatment for corneal blindness to people
from economically weaker sections.
Y.P. Mahindru Niramaya Eye Bank provides Cornea Transplants free of cost.
Niramaya Charitable Trust runs 10 rural
eye care centres to provide primary eye
care. The transplants are carried out at
the fully-equipped and reputed Ahooja
Eye Hospital, Gurgaon. Mahindru Foundation has taken to wide awareness
campaigns on eye donations, through
carnivals, marathons, seminars, painting
competitions, walk for vision event, etc.
The foundation has dedicated its services
to eradicate corneal blindness from the
country and aims at creating: modern facilities using best technology and equipment, extensive awareness about merits
of eye donations and providing high
quality medicare free of cost for the benefits of poor and under privileged. So far
the foundation has received 7000 to 8000
eye donation pledges, and conducted
more than 1200 corneal Retrieval and
more than 400 cornea transplantations.
The foundation has adopted professional
strategies to achieve its objectives. The
strategies include creating primary eye
care and eye donation facilities jointly
with like-minded NGOs at all cities with
0.5 million population, and setting up
one integrated hub having 9-12 remote
centres and the central unit with cornea processing facility attached to a full
fledged eye hospital.
“We plan to open 50 eye banks all over
India to ensure that corneal blindness is
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
completely wiped out from India,” Ashok
Mahindru, who heads Y P Mahindru Eye
Bank, said.
The major cause for this unfortunate
situation is lack of awareness among our
countrymen about eye donations, its
need and life changing impact on entire
families of cornea recipients who are able
to see this beautiful world again. Therefore, there is an urgent need to raise
awareness about eye donation. With the
vision of working towards total eradication of corneal blindness from the country, the Gurgaon-based NGO – Y.P. Mahindru Niramaya Eye Bank, under Ashok
Mahindru, has crossed the milestone of
1000 eye donations in 2012.
Ashok Mahindru, who has carried forward his father’s dream initiative Y.P.
Mahindru Niramaya Eye Bank. Many of
With a vision to reach out to many more
and bring light in their life and family,
Ashok Mahindru through his organization is relentlessly working hard to set up
many more such eye banks.
Infact Ashok Mahindru is actively involved in other philanthropic initiatives
also. Ashok Mahindru’s father Late Shri
Y.P Mahindru was founder member of a
school in 1959, named Arya Kanya Vidyalaya in Gurgaon. The school presently has
825 students most of them are getting
free education, books & uniform as per
the guidance of Ashok Mahindru.
Arya Veer Netra Chikitsalaya, committed
to eye care, was started as a weekly dispensary and grew to become a daily one.
Under the leadership of Ashok Mahindru,
it has now become a full-fledged 12-bed
hospital with an operation theatre. Nine
doctors and other para-medical staff perform almost 1000 cataract and other surgeries and 3000 OPDs in a year here.
Case Study
The company has a well defined policy and a CSR committee consisting of senior members
of the management to guide the CSR activities of the Group.
19
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Skilling Ethnic Communities of
Rubber Tappers of Tripura
Rubber Tapping Training Programme is running its third year and has Trained 315 Rubber Tappers.
DSGroupactivelyemployslocalsfromtheregionacrossdifferentlevelsandaimstogenerateemploymentthroughvarioussecondary&tertiaryoperations.
DS Group has an ongoing programme to train the unskilled or semi skilled rubber tappers of Tripura. The basic objective of this initiative is to train the tribals
and the unskilled tappers in scientific latex extraction to increase the rubber yield and minimize the damage to the rubber plant by teaching them precision
in tapping. The curriculum also highlights the method of tapping rubber in monsoon season and protection of plants from fungal infections during rains by
conducting theoretical and practical training programs with the help of the Rubber Board, TFDPC and TRTC.
A
total of 13 training programme have been organised till date, in which, 315 unskilled and
semi skilled rubber tappers were trained. Corporate Social Responsibility forms an integral aspect
of DS Group’s business objectives. Taking this philosophy forward, the company has been executing
a wide range of CSR programs on education, health,
drinking water, empowerment and disaster relief. The
Company believes that economic empowerment of
individuals transforms them into powerful agents of
social change.
DS Group has set up an ultra modern Heat Resistant Rubber Thread manufacturing plant in Agartala.
This state-of-the-art manufacturing facility has an
installed capacity of 5000MT per annum and has
earned the status of a Mega Project from the state
government. The opening of this plant, has given an
impetus to the socio economic growth of the region
and a livelihood opportunity to more than 200 tribal
families, by buying the latex they tap.
The Company has long term programmes running
in Tripura to support the local communities through
initiatives like school kits distribution and free DS Mobile Clinics. The company has also started a program
on empowerment to train the unskilled and semiskilled rubber tappers in scientific way of rubber tapping. This will increase the latex collection and the life
of the rubber plants, which, in turn will contribute to
high yields, thereby improving the lives of the tribal
farmers.
The climate condition of Tripura is very favorable for
growing rubber. Thousands of marginal / small farmers, who have 1-5 acres of tilla (undulating) land, have
been planting rubber for the last few decades. As a result large quantity of rubber is being produced every
year and recently the state has been declared as the
second largest rubber growing state in India, next to
Kerala. It is a cash crop, is a profitable cultivation and
gradually has become popular amongs the farmers.
It was however observed, that in Tripura, tapping decreases significantly during monsoon as the tappers
are not aware of tapping techniques in rains. All this
leads to less productivity and consequently less income for the tappers.
Tapping is a skilled job and the tapper should have
sufficient technical knowledge about the science
involved in the process, to do the job properly. But
due to lack of proper scientific knowledge, maximum
plants do not give adequate latex and gets damaged
at a very young age.
Thus, DS Group decided to start a unique Training
program for Rubber Tappers.
Objectives
Background of Participants
The objectives of the programme are:
The training Programmes were organised for the existing rubber tappers to improve
their skiils. A total of 315 trainees have been trained in the 13 training programs. Details of participants given below:
•
To provide training to unskilled or semi skilled rubber tappers through well designed module
•
To improve the socio economic status of rubber tappers from backward communities
•
To increase the production of natural rubber (latex) through scientific rubber
tapping in the state
Locations
The training programmes were organised for the existing communities involved in
rubber tapping or related activities. Following locations were covered in the first
phase:
Location
From
To
Bhati Fatik Charra, Mohanpur
Nov 19, 2011
Dec 17, 2011
Pepireakhola, Rajnagar Block, Belonia
Dec 19, 2011
Jan 12, 2012
Tarapur, Hezamara
Feb 12, 2012
March 12, 2012
Poangbari , Melaghar
March 18, 2012
March 31, 2012
Harendra Nagar, Mohanpur
April 18, 2012
April 30, 2012
From
To
Sabar Colony Para of Bagafa, South Tripura
July 22, 2012
August 10, 2012
Haripur, Motai GP, Hrishamuk
Aug 22, 2012
Sept 10, 2012
Mujaffar Para, North Bharat Chandra Nagar, Ra- Sept 14, 2012
jnagar
Oct 5, 2012
Owangchara A.W.C Rajnagar
Nov 3, 2102
Nov 25, 2012
Dhuptali Colony, Kakrabon, Gomati
Dec 16, 2012
Jan 4, 2013
Devipur A.W.C, Hrishyamukh, South Tripura
Jan 21, 2013
Febr 9, 2013
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
Total
%
20 or less than 20
59
18.73
Between 21 to 30
154
48.88
More than 30
102
32.38
Total
315
100
Mostly participants are young; the average age is 27.83 years. Out of total participants, almost 70% were below 30 years and many are from tribal and backward classes. We ensure that at least 30% of the participants are Women.
Training Duration and content
As per the Rubber Board Guidelines, 70 to 75 hours are required to complete the
training on scientific rubber tapping. The following aspects were covered in the training programs:
• Importanceoftrainingforscientificrubbertapping
• Identificationofplantsfortapping
• Introductionoftools&equipmentsfortapping
In Second phase below mentioned locations has been covered.
Location
Age Group (in years)
• Collectionoflatexandfurtherpreservation
• TappingmanagementduringtheMonsoonperiodandInjuredplantprotection
from several fungal diseases
• Visittorubberprocessingunit.
• Personalitydevelopment
Impact of First Phase
Total 125 unskilled and semi skilled rubber tappers have been trained in first phase
of the program.
Case Study
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
An impact assessment was conducted to understand the outcome of the first phase
of the program. A total of 62 participants were contacted out of the 125 trainees. The
responses of the participants given below:
Occupation before the Training Program
Occupation
Before Training
Labour related to rubber tapping
33
Farmer
4
Rubber Tapping
14
Home maker
4
Rubber Nursery
1
Unemployed
6
Total
62
Before attending the training 33
(53.2%) participants were garden
labourers who used to support
tapping activities only and 22.6%
participants were involved in rubber tapping as primary occupation.
After the training programme all
the participants are working as
rubber tappers. Of the total par-
‘‘
“Rubber Tappers in the rural
Northeast area are untrained as
far as rubber tapping is concerned. Moreover, the plants
are affected with diseases and
the lifespan of the rubber plants
were found declining. Monsoon
is the ideal for taping rubber but
majority of them failed to tap it
because that had no training to
do so. This training programme
covers all aspects of scientific
Rubber tapping and also teaches
them a method to tap Rubber in
monsoons. The socio economic
conditions of the tappers has
improved considerably as even
the garden owners now prefer
trained tappers who keep the
trees safe , get maximum produce and can tap rubber round
the year.
‘‘
Bhavna Sood,
Senior Vice
President Corporate
Communications,
PR and CSR, DS Group
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
20
Skilling Ethnic communities
of Rubber Tappers of Tripura
ticipants, 88.7% of them are full time tappers (primary occupation is rubber tapping).
Rest of the participants are also engaged in other aspects of rubber tapping business
like managing nursery and latex marketing. The current graph shows the income of
the participants. Before the training, the monthly income of the 59.7% participants
were below Rupees 3000/- where as 9.7% participants were unemployed or involved
in householdwork. After the training program, the monthly income of 70.9% participants has become more than Rs. 4500 in a month while 21% participants are able to
earn between Rs. 3000-4500 per month (part time engagement).
Present Status
The company is continuing providing training program to the semi skilled and unskilled rubber tappers. The third phase of the program started in June 2013. Below
mentioned locations have been covered till date:
Location
From
To
Gamaibari, Kashia Mongal, Khuwai Tripura
June 18, 2013
July 13, 2013
Devipur A.W.C ,Hrishyamukh R.D. Block
July 18, 2013
August 14,2013
Further, the following locations will be covered in the current phase.
S. No.
Location
Block
District
1
Laxmibil
Bisalghar
Sipahijala
2
Niharnagar
Rajnagar
South Tripura
3
Sarasima
Hrishymukh
South Tripura
4
Mirza
Kakraban
Gumati
DS Group
Dharampal Satyapal Group (DS Group) is a rapidly growing multi-diversified conglomerate, with a turnover of
more than Rs 3300 crores in the fiscal ending 2013. The
Group has strong presence in F&B, Hospitality, Mouth
Fresheners, Tobacco, Packaging, Agro forestry, Rubber
Thread and Infrastructure. The most recent forays have
been the Group’s entry into the Dairy, Confectionary
and Powdered Beverages businesses. DS Group is committed towards premium quality products & credited
with several innovations over last eight decades.
Catch Spices, Catch Spring water, Catch flavoured water,
Chingles-the mini chewing gums, Piyoz, Yomil- the one
minute shake, Dairymax, Meetha Mazaa, Tulsi, Pass Pass,
Rajnigandha, Tansen, Tulsi Saada, The Manu Maharani
and Unitex are some of the leading brands the Group
proudly shelters today.
DS Group constantly nurtures its responsibility as a
committed corporate citizen by regarding Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) as an integral part of its business objectives.
The company has a well defined policy and a CSR committee consisting of senior members of the management to guide the CSR activities of the Group. Wide
range of CSR initiatives ranging from education to
health to safe drinking water and making tribal and ethnic communities self reliant are being implemented on
ground, all over the country. The Group works strongly
on the principles of sustainability, dedication, resourcefulness and commitment.
Article
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
Earthquake, landslides, cloud-burst, flash-floods are not new to the people of Uttarakhand, but 16th June 2013, came as horror day for them, when thousands of people
lost their lives in this calamity. It appeared as if Lord Shiva decided to intervene about
the wrong doings taking place in his own land.
21
12 Years of Uttarakhand Formation and
66 Days of Uttarakhand Catastrophe
By Anil Jaggi
We need to make green GDP, Sustainable and Inclusive Development as our priority. We
need to design our vision documents considering these fragile issues. At the cost of safe
and green earth, no development is desirable and justified.
‘‘
Earthquake, landslides, cloud-burst, flash-floods are not new to the
people of Uttarakhand, but June16, 2013, came as horror day for
them, when thousands of people lost their lives in this calamity. It
appeared as if Lord Shiva decided to intervene about the wrong doings taking place in his own land. Many families have lost their shelters and many villagers have lost the bread earners of their family.
Ignoring the basics of sustainable, safe and
green development, the policy makers were
happily giving very rosy picture of development.
Citizens could not understand that this all was
fake development, while it is disastrous route
for its habitats, biodiversity. They had aspired,
fought and scarified their lives to get separate
developed Himalayan state while protecting the
nature’s blessings.
Earthquake, landslides, cloud-burst, flash-floods
are not new to the people of Uttarakhand, but
16th June 2013, came as horror day for them,
when thousands of people lost their lives in this
calamity. It appeared as if Lord Shiva decided to
intervene about the wrong doings taking place
in his own land. Many families have lost their
shelters and many villagers have lost the bread
earners of their family.
Thanks to Indian Army, Indian Air Force, other
paramilitary forces, local NGOs, CSOs and many
more unsung heroes who helped 100,000 plus
people get evacuated from there within few
days. According to state government, 5748 people are still missing and more than 2500 mules
were washed away. Many small villages/clusters
are shaken badly and are not safe for further
habitation. There is major loss of human life, liveCSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
‘‘
T
he memories are still fresh in my mind
and I still remember the call from a friend
in New York, informing me about the formation of new state “Uttarakhand”. It was
a moment of great happiness and fulfilment, not
only for myself but the whole Uttarakhandi community across the world. Every non resident Uttarakhandi was excited and wanted to contribute
towards the progress, prosperity and inclusive
growth of the state. But gradually they realised
that political leadership and bureaucracy are
not concerned for equitable development of the
state. Even they seemed ready to sell green cover of the state (65 % of total land area), natural
resources (forest, rivers, minerals etc.) to become
wealthy and powerful overnight. Ruling parties
(BJP & Congress) did not take long in selling the
thousands of water streams coming down from
hills to greedy power sector companies. It all
happened despite the regular protest from environmentalists like Sunder Lal Bahuguna, Chandi
Prasad Bhatt, Prof. Agarwal and seers from all
over India.
stock, agriculture, business activities and major
loss of infrastructure in terms of road, bridges,
telecom etc. Interestingly, metrological department gave alerts in advance to state government
about heavy rains and possible cloud burst. But
as usual, the government officials did not give
any quick response to these alerts. The government machinery miserably failed in taking the
preventive steps to reduce the impact of the natural calamity. This led to a blame game between
government and metrological department for
the loss of thousands of lives. At the beginning
of rescue operation, government did not have
any idea about the number of people stranded
there. No database of the residents, tourists and
vehicles was available with the authorities.
Coverage by the media helped government
to get the understanding of the severity of the
catastrophe. Help started pouring in from all
over India for rescue and relief work. Our team
(from SFID-Society For Inclusive Development)
jumped into it by extending help to the agencies and groups working in this mission. Inspite
of meteorological department warnings of
heavy rains in the coming days, we finally moved
to Kedar Valley in the first week of July. Loaded
with emergency medicines, ration etc. we left
for Kedar Valley and reached Guptkashi, passing through broken roads & damaged bridges
witnessing landslide on the way. Next day team
SFID visited many severely affected villages. We
kept on changing vehicles due to landslides/
road blocks and even trekked down many villages to meet the victims. We realised that this
disaster has not hit at one level, but it is a multi
level disaster. Of course it is nature’s fury added
with ineffective governance (at preparedness
& response level), lack of vision and directions.
We cannot escape from our own responsibilities,
poor planning, insensitive approach towards
mother earth and ever growing greed of human
being, to make more & quick money by exploiting our own natural resources.
Next day we stopped at one Hydel project site,
setup on one of the tributary of Mandakini river.
Guards on duty informed us about the damage
to the power house. To our surprise, local villagers expressed their mixed emotions toward the
damage caused to the ongoing hydel projects.
Villagers consider them as main culprits for damaging the basic attributes of the mountains. It
was interesting to know, how around 70 hydel
projects were built in last few years, in which 23
mega projects of 100 MW, 22 Medium Projects
of 10-100 MW and 25 small projects of less than
10 MW are coming up. They are damaging local eco system, cutting down large number of
trees, using tonnes of dynamite to shake mountains for constructing huge tunnels. We were
surprised that, when a layman can explain the
logics & probable reasons for this calamity in Uttarakhand hills for the sake of so called development, but probably our decision makers, experts,
political leaders are not willing to understand.
While we trekked number of villages, we could
not find government officials, except some local
NGOs and CSOs involved in relief work. Not even
local MPs/MLAs were present there. Our ministers were busy in debating on national television
channels, as if it was an opportunity for them to
come in limelight at national level forgetting
their own people in distress and pain.
Our conclusive observation is that in this fragile
eco zone, natural disasters are part and parcel of
life. The more we challenge the nature, it will hit
back with more force as it is a balancing act of
nature. Looking at the whole disastrous event,
it reminded me the quote of Paulo Coetho that
human beings always say, “Save the Planet”
but what Planet must be saying “Save yourself
Idiots, I will take care of myself!”. So, with this
understanding I can say that leaving behind
the concerns of nature, even damaging it, the
development will always remain fake! The talk
of development in terms of growing concrete
buildings, industries, growing GDP etc. is not the
actual development.
We need to make green GDP, Sustainable and Inclusive Development as our priority. We need to
design our vision documents considering these
fragile issues. At the cost of safe and green earth,
no development is desirable and justified. We
have to fix the responsibility and accountability
for death of large number of innocent people
and loss of life. The handling of post disaster rescue operations and the development of amiable
future developmental design has to be done in
more planned and nature friendly manner. People of Uttarakhand, land of Chipko, never wanted such disastrous development for their state.
We do need development, we do need infrastructure and we do need responsible industry/
business to create employment with people’s
participation, but not at the cost of endangering
human life and our eco system.
General questions in the masses today are“Was it possible to avert such Catastrophe?”
If Yes, then why we didn’t!
“Is the government ready to deal with future
calamities?” If Yes, then how?
Anil Jaggi is the Executive Editor, CSR & Competitiveness based at Dehradun.
Interview
Sunfame India’s product portfolio includes range of innovative with latest technology solar powered lanterns and power packed home lighting
solution system.
www.csrcompetitiveness.com
23
Our Dream is to Bring Solar Energy
to Reach all Strata of Society
Rajat Bothra, Director, Sunfame India
Sunfame India is a venture of East India group. Sunfame India aspires to become one of the leading player in off-grid solar products. In an interview with
CSR & COMPETITIVENESS, Rajat Bothra, Director, Sunfame India, speaks about
the Solar Products and and how products are sustainable and creating hope for India.
‘‘
Sunfame India’s has unwavering commitment for promoting good quality products with
clear polices on after sales
service at the best price.
‘‘
Tell us about Sunfame India and its vision and mission.
Sunfame India is a part of East India Group. We are
committed in promoting solar energy for empowerment of communities that are deprived off grid
connectivity or have partial access to electricity
that will lead to inclusive growth in Indian economy. Our vision is to innovate and promote solar
products that will be towards creating H.O.P.E. for
holistic development. Our dream is to bring solar
energy within reach of all strata of our society.
Further, we work towards removing the dependence on Kerosene (instead of giving healthy light,
it slowly kills people) and any other conventional
methods (like wood burning) for lighting.
How is H.O.P.E different from HOPE?
Our H.O.P.E is very different from HOPE. Through
all our solar energy products we will be striving
towards creating H (Improving Health – eliminating dependence on Kerosene), O (Creating Social
and Economic Opportunities), P (enhancing Prosperity – eliminating dependence on non-renewable energy to unlimited source of clean n healthy
energy), E (promoting Education).
What makes you passionate about Solar Products?
In our country, there are more than 30,000 non
electrified villages and electrified villages face
problem of poor or intermittent power supply,
power cuts, high fluctuation etc. This leads towards poor quality of life of rural as well as urban
population.
Solar energy is one of the easily available resource
which can help in solving the problem of power
scarcity. Solar powered products promote clean
and healthy environment (Zero pollution and unlimited source of energy).
Please brief us about your Product
Portfolio?
Sunfame India’s product portfolio includes range
of innovative with latest technology solar powered lanterns and power packed home lighting
solution system.
Does Sunfame India have manufacturing process for solar products in India?
Yes, presently we have set up a testing lab for
solar products at our existing venture East India
CSR & Competitiveness | August 2013
Technology Company. We have capabilities to
manufacture innovative and multiple solar powered products in India through our existing sister
concerns’ manufacturing setup in Dehradun and
Bangalore.
Does Sunfame India have an in-house
research & development team or outsourcing from other company?
We have an in-house strong research & development team which constantly keeps on working
and upgrading our existing product range, developing new technology, and innovating new solar
products.
How important has it been for Government to show such leadership in supporting solar power?
Today, the biggest challenge we are facing is to
educate and generate awareness among the people on the cost-benefit analysis of solar products.
Through Ministry of New & Renewable Energy
(‘MNRE’) and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. (IREDA), the Indian Government is trying to regulate solar industry and promoting solar powered products through multiple
levels of support activities. Indian Government is
playing the utmost responsible role in promoting
solar energy in India.
How your products are competitive in
terms of prices amongst available options in the market?
Products” under their Corporate Social
Responsibility programmes?
First of all, we do not consider our products as
only solar powered products. We are promoting
green initiatives towards clean and green environment. We believe that we promoting multilevel integrated solar powered environment. To
explain this point through example, one of our
products “Shiksha” is targeted towards promoting
education. Shiksha works for 5-6 hours (after full
charge of 8 hours) and gives appropriate white
light which is very good for studying. It helps to
increase reading hours for students at evening
after getting dark in non electrified areas. In effect, we are promoting education and improved
health of students through our products. Therefore, Corporate India should look at our solar solutions as harbingers for creating H.O.P.E.
The use of solar energy in India could
help to change this problem, in providing a clean, cheap source of electricity
for many areas /communities.What are
your views?
As I mentioned earlier, Sunfame India’s mission is
to eliminate dependence of the people on “Kerosene (EVIL)” for lighting purposes.
Have you been seeing increased interest in alternative energy in recent
years due to high fuel prices?
Our product range offers solar powered product
(lantern) from Rs. 500-1500 with excellent product quality, durability, innovative with latest technology and reliable after sales service.
In recent years, we have noticed that with promotion of benefits of alternative / clean energy
through multiple modes of communication
platforms, the interest in alternative energy has
shown a positive trend.
Why people need to have Sunfame Solar Lamps in their households?
East India group
Sunfame India’s has unwavering commitment for
promoting good quality product with clear polices on after sales service at the best price.
Making low cost and easy electricity availability in the rural India, particularly in dense forest areas, is still
a challenge for the Government.
How do you think the government
agencies can take advantage from
your products?
It is a challenge for the government and private
players operating in this industry. However, with
public private partnership, promoting solar products will get huge boost. Further, building networking with Central, State and local level NGOs
or civil society organizations, we can generate
awareness and promote the solar products. Sunfame India is in discussion with private players
for developing effective distribution network and
channel across India.
How corporate India can take advantage by promoting “Sunfame Solar
E-Pack Polymers Pvt. Ltd.
E-Pack is India’s largest player in EPS packaging and provides custom moulded EPS
packaging to LG Electronics (India’s largest
consumer durables company) with large
distribution network across North India. It is
also a notable player in PU based pre-fabricated structures like modular corporate offices, schools, toilets, etc.
East India Technologies Pvt. Ltd
The company provides EPS packaging to
Philips, Panasonic, Dakin, Samsung Electronics and other customers. The company also
does PCB assembly for global giants like Schneider.
Edurables & EVision
The firm is the 2nd largest OEM manufacturer of air-conditioners and microwave ovens
for leading brands like LG Electronics, Voltas,
Philips and various other customers.
visit - www.sunfameglobal.com
Empowering Rural Youth
Vedanta IL & FL Skill School, Korba
Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd. (BALCO), through this premier project, has produced
nearly 2200 young men and women who are providing their services to various reputed
companies and are happy to have become ‘self reliant’.
T
he greatest achievement for anybody is ‘self reliance’. Robert D. Hales, rightly says “As we become self-reliant, we will be prepared to face challenges with confidence and peace of
mind.”
• TheVedantaIL&FLSkillSchoolwasputupinBalcoNagar,inKorbaintheStateofChhattisgarh,
tomakepeopleselfreliantandtoinstilconfidenceinpeoplebymakingthemskilledinvarious
fields.
• After learning about the requirements of various industries, the youth are trained in skilled
workslikesewing,weldingandinmasteringhospitality.AnationallevelagencyIL&FSassists
Balco in the project.
• Unemployedyoutharescreenedandthenprovidedamonth’sfreetrainingattheSchool.During their stay, accommodation, conveyance and meals are provided for by Balco.
• Though,theprojectwasstartedtotargettheyouthlivingbelowthepovertyline,thetraining
opportunitiesattheSchoolarealsoavailabletopromisingyoungpersonswhohaveazealfor
learning and in becoming self reliant.
Iam
proud
thatI
stand
on my
feet
‘AthithiDevoBhava’-meansourGuestisGodanditmeansmuchmoretoDeepikaMahant
as the feeling unfolds itself in a beautiful smile while she welcomes guests at Hotel Babylon,Raipur,Chattisgarh.Thetwinkleinhereyeandherconfidencespeakvolumesofher
hospitalityskills.
Daughterof,BudhwaMahantandAktiMahant,shelearnedtherudimentsofhospitalityat
aspecialcourse–‘AthithiSatkar’runbyVedantaIL&FSSchoolatBalconagar,Korba,Chhattisgarh.AresidentofNehruNagarinBalconagar,thisClass12Commercestudentdidnot
havethefaintestideawhatlifehadinstoreforher.ShehadcometotheSkillSchoolto
learnindustrialsewing,butaftercounsellingsheconvincedherselfthatsheshouldtake
uptrainingforthehospitalitysector.Thenewcourseonhospitality-‘AthithiSatkar’kindledherpassionforhospitality.ShepassionatelyfinishedthecourseandisgracingthefrontreceptionofHotelBabylon,Raipurtoday.
Lifehasitsupsanddowns.Growingup,Deepikarealisedthatherfather’searningsasalabourerwerenotenoughtobeartheexpenses
ofthefamily.Beingtheeldestofthetwosiblings,shelearntitearlythatshehadtosupplementherfather’searnings.Itwasherfather’s
visiontoletDeepikajointhenewlyintroducedhospitalitycourseattheBalcoSkillSchool.
Eversince,theJune28,2012,thefirstdayofherplacementinHotelBabylonatRaipur,Deepikaisbrimmingwithselfrelianceandconfidence.Alongwithherjob,sheisalsopursuingabachelor’sdegreeinCommerce.Herfacelightsupasyouaskheraboutherambition
–‘Togethigherandhigherinthehospitalityindustry’shesayswithconfidence.Hatsofftoherdiligenceandpassion!
Herfather,AktiMahant,couldn’tholdhistearsasDeepika’sfirstsalarygracedhispalm.“Iamproudofmydaughter”hesaidasjoy
floodedhisface.MahantnevermissesachancetopraiseVedanta’svisionandsupporttohelpunemployedyouthbeabletostandon
theirownfeet,justlikeDeepika.BalcoSkillSchoolisproudofDeepika!
VedantaIL&FLSkillSchool
Bharat Aluminium Company Limited
P.O.:BalcoNagar,Korba-495684